The Tech Futurologist

Our $1.7million iPad: Couple sell their tiny $6,000 home to Apple after computer giant tells them: 'Name your price'

noreply@blogger.com (Tal Rosenblum) — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 17:10:00 +0000

For Donnie and Kathy Fulbright, it's the 'iDeal' situation.

The North Carolina couple have bucked the housing trend rather spectacularly - by selling their $6,000 home to computer giant Apple for $1.7million.

The pair - who have now built a brand new dream house with the proceeds - had lived in their tiny home in rural Maiden, North Carolina, for 34 years.

Apple of Apple's eye: Donnie and Kathy Fulbright, who sold their $6,000 home to the computer giant for $1.7million

Modest: The $6,000 home that the Fulbrights lived in for 34 years - before Apple came along

Name your price: The home sits on less than one acre of land - but that land happens to be right where Apple want to build their new $1billion facility

They had no plans to move.

But when Apple Inc said they wanted to buy the property, which originally cost just under $6,000 and sits on less than one acre of land, they finally agreed.

'They told us to put a price on it and we did,' Kathy Fulbright, 62, told a U.S. newspaper.

The couple used the proceeds from the sale to build a new 4,200 square-foot house - on 49 acres, boasting a jacuzzi and pond.

They said they rejected Apple's first offer, and second. Well, they always did say that the third time's the charm.

Apple is in the process of building a $1billion data centre on the surrounding property.

Moving on up: The dream house that the couple built with the profits from the sale on 49 acres of land

Retiring with style: The 4,200-square foot house boasts a jacuzzi and a man-made pond filled with bass and catfish

The gigantic warehouse-like facility is set to be humming with servers and generators that will deliver all the digital entertainment that makes Apple's flagship products - the iPod, iPhone and iPad - so popular.

The centre - dubbed 'Project Dolphin' by officials - is believed to be aiming at allowing customers to download the products via the online iTunes store.

But they will be able to download to the 'cloud' - that is, via internet-based computing, with resources and software provided to computers on demand, similar to an electricity grid.

Using the cloud - rather than downloading data on to a hard drive - is set to speed things up considerably.

The Fulbrights live in the rural town of Maiden, North Carolina

An Apple spokesperson declined to comment on what exactly the company is planning in Maiden, a tiny town of 3,200.

But speculation was rife, with analysts suggesting the company could also be examining as-yet unannounced initiatives - like forays into social networking and search, according to a Bloomberg report.

That would pit Apple against those current industry giants, Facebook and Google.

Google has already opened a facility near Maiden, and the town officials are hoping that the combined power of the two names will help put their town on the map.

Google has already employed 80 people - Apple is set to hire 50, but generate 3,000.

Officials have already bent over backwards to make the area attractive to Apple.

North Carolina’s legislature approved $46million in tax breaks for the company.

Local governments also slashed Apple’s real property taxes by half and slashed personal property taxes by 85 per cent.

But as good a deal as the move may be for Apple, surely it can't top the deal that the Fulbrights made.

[Via Daily Mail UK]

Google’s Self-Driving Car Spotted On The Highway Almost A Year Ago [Video]

noreply@blogger.com (Tal Rosenblum) — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 17:03:00 +0000

[Via TechCrunch]

In November 2009, Ben Tseitlin was driving along on the 280 highway between San Francisco and Palo Alto when he noticed something weird. There was a Toyota Prius next to him with a weird spolier-like thing on the roof. And on top of that was some sort of spinning contraption. It was weird enough that Tseitlin decided to take a video of it and posted it to his Facebook page, guessing it was sort of test wind-powered Prius. Little did Ben know at the time, it was actually something much more.

What Tseitlin captured, of course, was the Google self-driving car. The secret project, which Google revealed for the first time today, is a combination of different technologies developed by Google that will allow a car to drive itself — yes, even on the highway. Google has disclosed that they’ve been testing these cars “recently“, but they’ve clearly been testing them for longer than that, as Tseitlin’s video proves. The fact that these specially-equipped Priuses (and one Audi TT) have racked up over 140,000 miles (1,000 of while have been completely human-free) on the road, suggests a longer cycle of testing as well.

One of the most interesting aspects of this whole project is that local authorities were fine with Google road-testing these cars. “We’ve briefed local police on our work,” Google noted today and said that human beings are always present in the driver’s seat when the cars are on the road just in case a manual override is needed. The only accident over all these months involved someone else rear-ending one of the cars.

Tseitlin tells us that he’s actually seen the cars around a few other places as well in the past several months. A commenter on his Facebook post notes the same thing.

Google’s secret project has been driving next to many of us all these months and we never ever realized it. That won’t be the case anymore. Watch Tseitlin’s video below.

Update: And none other than Robert Scoble caught the car on video in January 2010 — but he assumed it was the new Street View car. His comment on the video page is funny:

They must be testing the latest Mapping car a lot lately. Seems I see them on almost every trip. I’m not sure what company they work for, I’ve always assumed Google but I see these cars quite frequently in Silicon Valley. This time I had my HD camera ready. Note that there’s two cameras on top: one that looks like it’s recording video (the black thing on top) and one that’s recording stills (the rotating camera). Also note that they didn’t like me shooting video, when they noticed me they slowed down quickly.

There was a reason they didn’t like him shooting that footage. Also – eyes on the damn road, Robert! This is exactly why we need these cars.

Frankie Muniz WIN! (but still kinda mean)

noreply@blogger.com (Tal Rosenblum) — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 16:56:00 +0000

In some regards I find this pretty freakin’ awesome. I mean if I had made that amount of money at that age I think I would have the balls to make statements like this too. He didn’t have to go into the whole “moms house” “35″ thing but nonetheless…ZING! Something that I learned too is that Frankie has stopped acting for the time being and is trying to start an actual career as Formula One racecar driver. He’s actually done pretty well and won a few races.

In 2005 he won the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race.
In January 2007, he placed second at the Sebring Winter National Phat Sack race.
Muniz signed with Atlantic Championship winning team Pacific Coast Motorsports in January 2008. He finished the 2008 season in eleventh place.
At the end of the 2008 season, Muniz won the Jovy Marcelo Sportsmanship Award.

How does this make you feel about him? Do you like him more or less for saying something like this? (Funny thing is, Frankie has 72,313 followers and Liam Laferriere (the random tweeter) has a whopping 64. That’s just not fair.

[Via Top Cultured]

The Definitive Guide to Windows Phone 7 Handsets [Via Gizmodo]

noreply@blogger.com (Tal Rosenblum) — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 15:31:00 +0000

Eager for a piece of WP7? Here are the top phones you should consider, broken down by US carrier. You're welcome

T-Mobile

HTC 7 Mozart

Like many of HTC's WP7 phones announced today, the 3.7-inch Mozart has a 8MP camera and Xenon flash, and also has Dolby Mobile and SRS Wow HD for "virtual surround sound."

Otherwise, there's a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 512MB RAM and 576MB of ROM, and 8GB of internal storage. The phone itself measures 119 x 60.2 x 11.9mm, and weighs 130 grams. Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, a G-sensor, ambient light sensor and GPS are also included, as with HTC's other phones.

HTC 7 HD7

This is a big beast at 4.3-inches, but inside there's 16GB of storage and a 5MP camera. Check out what Matt has to say about the HD7 here.

Dell Venue Pro
Want something different from your WP7 smartphone? How about a vertical slider, with a 4.1-inch screen?

AT&T

HTC 7 Surround

At 3.8-inches with a 480 x 800 resolution, it's a little larger than the Mozart, and internal storage is just 8GB. Considering this is a media-tuned device, that's a little surprising. The processor is powered up at 1GHz, and there's 512MB of ROM AND 576MB of RAM.

Weighing 165grams, it measures 119.5 x 61.5 x 12.97mm, and has the usual assortment of specs such as Bluetooth 2.1, Wi-Fi, a g-sensor, ambient light sensor, and a 5MP camera with LED flash, capable of 720p video recording. Inside, a 1230mAh battery lurks.

Samsung Focus
With a 4-inch Super AMOLED screen, the Focus is the thinnest of all WP7 phones. As to whether it still makes for a good phone, wait and see. Europe, it'll be known as the Omnia 7 to you.

LG Quantum
A rounded 5MP Snapper, the Quantum has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

Sprint

HTC 7 Pro
Internally, it's roughly the same phone ticking away as the various other WP7 handsets HTC is launching, with a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 512MB of RAM, 576MB of ROM and 16GB of internal storage. That extra memory will be hugely appreciated, I'm sure.

It's a little smaller in size than some of the other handsets, despite its slide-out keyboard. It measures 117.5 x 59 x 15.5mm, and weighs 183.5 grams, and is crammed full with the usual specs, along with a 5MP camera with LED flash (capable of shooting 720p video), and a more powerful battery at 1500mAh. The Pro won't be released until the first half of 2011.

No Carrier

LG Optimus 7
Either the Optimus 7 will be available on most networks worldwide, or the carrier just hasn't been announced yet. It's a 3.8-inch candybar with 16GB of internal storage, and has a 5MP camera.

Europe-Only

HTC Trophy

In the meantime, the Trophy should be one of the cheapest WP7 phones on the market. Internally, it has 8GB of storage with 576MB of ROM and 512MB of RAM, and has a 3.8-inch WVGA screen, and measures 118.5 x 61.5 x 11.96mm, weighing 140 grams. Instead of compromising on the camera or battery in favor of keeping costs down, it's a 5MP effort with 720p video recording (Microsoft's lowest-allowed spec for WP7 phones), and the battery is a 1300mAh.

Sparrow for Mac Simplifies Gmail for the Better

noreply@blogger.com (Tal Rosenblum) — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 23:21:00 +0000

Name: Sparrow

Quick Pitch: Sparrow is a minimalist mail application for Mac. It was designed to keep things simple and efficient. No fancy stuff here — just your mail and nothing else.

Genius Idea: E-mail has become such a large part of our lives that everyone from Google to individual developers are looking to build the best solution for faster, better e-mail management. Yet all of the bright new features sometimes make our e-mail inboxes more complex (and sometimes slower) than ever. But not Sparrow.

The free Mac desktop client for Gmail approaches e-mail withTweetie-like finesse and simplicity. If anything, Sparrow feels like a mobile e-mail client optimized for your desktop, which means it eliminates the chaff to focus on the wheat: exchanging e-mail.

With Sparrow, you can send and receive e-mail, archive messages, filter to view starred items and drafts, and that’s about it. E-mails appear in a single column, and you can expand the client to view messages in a separate panel.

Of course, there’s a command for everything, and Sparrow has all the basics covered, including e-mail threading. But the real magic is the speed at which messages flow in. This client is as fast as they come. Sparrow also comes with Growl notifications, an important feature that alerts Mac users to incoming messages.

If you’re addicted to Priority Inbox, filters, labels and some of the other sophisticated but heavier conveniences that Gmail’s standard interface affords, then Sparrow isn’t the right e-mail client for you right now.

Co-creator Dominique Leca tells us that Sparrow will evolve to include more features and support for additional e-mail providers. “Many features are planned and we’re already collecting user feedback via a GetSatisfaction widget on our site. Gmails labels will be the first new feature and we’ll keep refining the application and widening its potential customer base by adding support for new IMAP mail providers,” he says.

Leca and his partner initially started Sparrow as a side project, but in matter of days their product has exploded on to the scene with 42,000 downloads in five days. “Now that we know Sparrow has potential we’re looking for investors,” Leca explains.

Does the idea of a more minimalistic e-mail experience appeal to you? Share your thoughts on Sparrow in the comments.

Apple's MagSafe Connectors Could Be Used on iPads and iPhones

noreply@blogger.com (Tal Rosenblum) — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 17:47:00 +0000

Before worrying about your iPod dock's future (and the whole of China's accessory ecosystem being thrown into disarray), listen up: I don't think we need to worry about the iPad and iPhone eschewing the humble 30-pin connector.

Apparently back in June, Apple filed a patent for MagSafe power connectors being added to iPads and iPhones. This shouldn't mean they're throwing out the 30-pin connector in lieu of the MagSafe, but I am intrigued by the patent diagrams showing the MagSafe dock on the curved back—hardly the ideal place to charge an iPhone from, unless the aluminum connector head was curved upwards so the gadgets could rest easy on a table, facing upwards? [Patently Apple]

The 16 Worst 90s Superhero Redesigns

noreply@blogger.com (Tal Rosenblum) — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 17:46:00 +0000

The 90s were a rough time for superheroes. Comics were unnecessarily turned gritty and EXTREME without any reason, and the success of Image breaking away from the big publishers sent everyone scurrying to redesign their characters in the currently popular way — with shoulder pads, pouches, scars and scowls. Some excellent takes on characters did come from this period: Starman and Kyle Rayner as Green Lantern both jump out. Most characters weren’t so lucky. Here are the 16 most hideous redesigns from this dark decade.

16. Mullet Superman

After Superman had died, was replaced by four mock-Supermen, brought about the destruction of the comic book market, and was resurrected, the bigwigs at DC decided they needed something small, to make him seem hip, cool, and with-it. Something that would strike a chord with the kids, and make Superman fresh! So they gave him a luxurious, flowing mullet. Thanks, DC, for giving him the worst haircut ever. To differentiate his secret identity, Clark Kent wore it as a hideous pony tail thing.

15. Biker Wonder Woman

Mike Deodato Jr. Remember that name, you’ll see it pop up a lot. He was damn hot in the 90s, and a king of impossibly tiny waisted women, and immensely muscled men. Unlike Rob Liefeld, Deodato actually knew perspective too, so he could do the crazy characters, but actually have them interact in almost normal ways. He was the artist behind Wonder Woman dressing up like a biker stripper for a rather extended arc. She lost the title of Wonder Woman to another Amazon, Artemis, who took over her job in the man’s world, and went around kicking ass and taking names. Wonder Woman decided to continue the fight in her own outfit, which is apparently a pair of bike shorts, and a leather bra. Nice. Completely non-iconic, and it lost any elements that tied it to the original.

14. Feral Wolverine

After Wolverine got his adamantium skeleton ripped out by Magneto, his body essentially went crazy. His healing factor kicked into overdrive, and he lost much of his humanity, reverting to a more feral form. Which meant he wore a rag for a mask, had no nose, and grew his fingernails long. From then on, his speech bubbles were made scratchy, and the furry canuck continued being a superhero, just a more stinky one. As a character arc, it made almost no sense, and the outfit was just stupid. One of the many, many outfits on this list which have since been ignored by all respectable writers.

13. Insect Wasp

Another Deodato monstrosity, one which links closely to entry 11 on this list. See, Tony Stark was being manipulated by the evil time traveller Kang/Immortus, and betrayed the Avengers. In the process, he managed to kill a couple of b-listers, including Wasp. Her sometimes husband, sometimes asshole ex, Henry Pym, tried to bring her back. And he did. Except now she looked like a butterfly zergling. Weirdly insectoid, with claws, big hair, and antennae, this horrific look only stuck around for a couple of issues until the universe was given a swift kicking by the Onslaught stupidity.

12. Power armor!

A whole bunch of bad, rolled into one entry. Sometimes, creators were too lazy to even hired a half-assed designer to give someone a 90s reboot, so they just went the easy route: armor. Slap a giant, usually mechanized, suit of armor on a character, call it extreme, and you’re in 90s heaven. Captain America’s body went crazy from residual super solider serum, putting him in a coma. Solution? Armor! Booster Gold got his ass kicked against Doomsday in the lead up to the Death of Superman. Solution? Armor! Daredevil…well, they just wanted to give him a makeover for his 30th anniversary, so they made his identity public, he got a new one, and started wearing spiky shoulder pads.

11. Teenage Tony Stark

Okay, going on from the Wasp post above, Tony Stark had turned traitor, and killed a bunch of Avengers, right? So what did the Avengers do? They plucked an alternate reality teenaged Tony Stark out of the ether, to pit him against our reality’s version. When the two fought, the older saw the error of his ways, and sacrificed himself to defeat the villain, and we were left stuck with the hip, young Tony Stark! Awesome! Or, completely useless, as it turns out. Not as charming, not as smart, not as badass. Bad decision all around. Luckily, reset by Heroes Reborn.

10. Guy Gardner, Warrior

Guy Gardner had a rough run for a very long time. Benchwarmer Green Lantern in case Hal Jordan didn’t cut it, he was constantly written as an annoying pain in the ass. Eventually he got his own ring, which was then taken from him. Then he got a yellow ring, which was also destroyed. So the writers decided to go a different route, and turn him into the last surviving descendant of an alien race, the Vuldarians, which covered his body with tattoos, and meant that he could transform into weapons. Yeah…plus, at one point, he turned into a woman. More recently, he’s gone back to being a Green Lantern, and everyone’s forgotten about the Warrior stuff.

9. Martian Manhunter/Bloodwynd

During the 90s in the JLA, Bloodwynd was a token mysterious character, who everyone was trying to find the origins of. He was also the token black guy, which meant his powers were supposedly to the ghosts of African slaves. Yeah. Anyway, the big reveal? Bloodwynd is actually Martian Manhunter, in the shape of Bloodwynd, possessed by Bloodwynd, who is in turn possessed by the demon Rott. It doesn’t make any sense. You know it, I know, DC doesn’t care.

8. Deodato Thor

Oh hey, it’s Deodato again! This time with a revision to Thor’s costume that literally had no explanation. For the past couple of issues, Thor had been fighting shirtless. Then, during a crossover, for about half the issues he had this new outfit, for half he didn’t. It was never explained. About two months later, he died fighting Onslaught. Good lord, this outfit was ugly. Belly shirt, giant chains, thigh and wrist straps, capsules on the chest, head condom. The whole thing was a mess of 90s era ugly.

7. Angel Punisher

Oh boy, was this one ever a bad decision. The Punisher was always a no-powers guy. He shoots mobsters, that’s his thing. Occasionally he gets involved in crazy world saving shenanigans, but his usual stuff is just street level. Then Marvel decided to let a couple of writers go nuts, and this is what we end up with. Old Franky boy commits suicide out of grief and frustration, at which point he’s brought back to life by angels as a demon hunter. He gets glowing red eyes, a forehead tattoo, and absolutely hilariously bad demon-killing guns. Even veteran horror artist Bernie Wrightson couldn’t save this from being crap. Thankfully this is now gone and forgotten.

6. Slutty Invisible Woman

I’m struggling to remember why the Marvel head honchos decided to make the Invisible Woman an outfit that looked like her toddler son had taken scissors to it. If I recall correctly — and I could be wrong — she absorbed the evil side of herself that was sometimes perverted into a being called Malice, and in doing so slightly embraced her dark (read kinky) side. So, her outfit changed to having a 4 cutout on the cleavage, a belly window, and showing off an immense amount of skin. I’m not quite sure why outfitting a prominent female character (and mother) in stripper attire was seen as a good move, but it was the 90s.

5. Az-bats

Ah, yes, Az-bats. Batman had his spine snapped, and Azrael took over, slowly converting the Batman costume into a panoply of spikes and angles, with bright colors, and unnecessary pouches. Instantly, the least child-safe batman toy of all time. At least this wasn’t Bruce Wayne behind it, but rather an increasingly violent and unstable associate, but the outfit just screamed EXTREME 90s! Power armor! Pouches! Spikes! You could roll him down the street, and pick up loose garbage. Good thing it wasn’t long before the real Batman kicked him to the curb.

4. Fate

Oh man, this one was truly ugly. Rather than keeping the classic, helmeted magician Dr. Fate, DC wanted to go EXTREME with the character. Dr. Fate was powered by three objects: a mystical ankh, helmet, and cloak. Fate was a grave robber, who gained the artifacts, and was attacked. The ankh exploded, giving him an EXTREME eye tattoo, injury forced him to use the cloak as an arm wrap, and he melted the helmet down into daggers and ankh shaped throwing darts. Damnit, 90s goths, why did you have to embrace the ankh so much, so it ends up being used for something as daft as this? You have all the other hallmarks of 90s revivals here too, unnecessary pouches, shoulder pads, a streak of discolored hair, a single glowing eye, and a permanent grimace.

3. Uncle Sam/Patriot

This one is especially weird. No one really likes Uncle Sam as a character, which I can understand. He’s just, well, Uncle Sam with superpowers. Wears stars and stripes outfit, beard, tophat and all, and goes around punching badguys. He’s The Spirit of America, tapping into the entire country, and is always used to give rousing speeches during crossover events. In other words, he’s Captain America light. His design remained unchanged since the 1940s, until the 90s hit. Oh good lord, did they do a number on him. The Spirit of America joined with 13 people from all walks of life around America, called himself Patriot, and becomes reborn in this monstrosity of an outfit. Sure, the stars and stripes suit was unsubtle, but this thing? A golden flying eagle helmet? Glowing light for a face? Giant shoulderpads? Spiked gauntlets? A giant gold chain as a weapon? What the fuck is any of that?

2. Heroes Reborn Cap

Oh god, fucking Robert Liefeld. Fuck everything about that. Captain America’s new costume is a hideous growth of tumors, that defies all logic and sense of perspective. Poor guy.

1. Electric Superman

Probably the worst decision ever was overhauling Superman’s iconic duds. Not a minor retouch, but completely redoing them, into this weird zappy…thing. Superman started getting energy powers, and had to wear a special containment suit. Eventually he could turn back to a human, but lost all powers in doing so. Then he split into two, with two different personalities, both of which thought they were the original. Cerebral blue and emotional red. Eventually they recombined to face some vague cosmic threat, and got back in the proper Superman body. The whole thing was completely nonsensical, and was only done to try and garner up more book sales, without any regard for the character himself. And if there’s anything more typical of a 90s redesign than that, I don’t know what it is.

Who Is Really Winning the Smartphone Race?

noreply@blogger.com (Tal Rosenblum) — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 13:16:00 +0000

Apple fanboys vs HTC fandroids. Crackberry junkies vs Nokia cheerleaders. All of them have their arguments and neverending doses of absurdly blind faith in a corporation. But who is really winning this race? Who is really the dominant smartphone manufacturer?

It's hard to tell.
See, when you take into consideration more than one factor, you get a different picture of how things are. Here you can see that Samsung is gaining market share faster than all its competitors, but their profit share growth is going down. Then you can see that Apple is gaining market share at a good rate, but their profit share growth dwarfs everyone else. The iPhone is one popular smartphone, with a hefty profit.

Asymco, who produced these graphics, argues that you can pair manufacturers according to their current growth vectors (in the chart above, you can see those pairs by color). According to them, Apple is destroying Nokia, while RIM is crunching Sony Ericsson, and Samsung is doing the same with Motorola. HTC and LG are doing something down there too, but both are doing it slowly, so let's ignore them for a while.

The fight for true domination
When you look at their 2007 vs 2010 comparison, things get even better:

Why better? Because despite its star status, Apple is still not the dominant player. Nobody is. Unlike with computers—where Microsoft still dominates—there is still no emperor in the smartphone empire. Apple is in a great position to claim that crown, but the game is still open.

One last thought: Looking at Nokia, I can't help to think that the CEO and his execs were complete imbeciles. If they had snatched Palm before Hewlett Packard—and scrap their stupid, outdated, horrible Symbian—they could have probably retained the dominant position they lost so quickly. Which is too bad, because they always made good hardware. [Asymco]

How Could This Photo of Saturn Be Real?

noreply@blogger.com (Tal Rosenblum) — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 13:14:00 +0000

Take a look at this photo of Saturn's rings, taken by Cassini's wide-angle camera last month, 270,000 miles behind Saturn. When I first saw it, I thought it couldn't be real, but the explanation is easy.

Cassini was in a position similar to the one in which it took this photo, looking to Saturn from below:

However, the Sun was in a different place, which explains the hard black shadow over the part of the rings closer to the spacecraft:

The reason why we can see the rings over the planet itself, as Phil Plait explains inBad Astronomy, is because the rings on the right reflect light onto the back of the planet. What we are looking at on the left side is the silhouette of the rings against the dimly lighted back of Saturn.

How exquisite, how delicate this scene is... and yet, how immense—each of the pixels is 22 kilometers wide in real life—and overwhelming. Once again, the Universe leaves me in awe. [Ciclops via Bad Astronomy]

Star Wars '83, Star Wars '05, Star Wars '12

noreply@blogger.com (Tal Rosenblum) — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 13:13:00 +0000

Star Wars, circa 1983: Full of incredible models, unprecedented effects, and general techno-wonder. Star Wars, circa 2005: Boring, plastic, and heartless. Star Wars, circa 2012: Boring, plastic, heartless and blurry. Fuck. [Reddit]

Internet Explorer falls below 50 percent global marketshare, Chrome usage triples

noreply@blogger.com (Tal Rosenblum) — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 14:59:00 +0000

Oh, IE, it pains us to do this to you. You who once so mightily won in the battle against Netscape Navigator now seem to be losing your war against a battalion of upstarts, relatively fresh faces like Firefox and Chrome. According to StatCounter, IE's global usage stats have fallen to 49.87 percent, a fraction of a tick beneath half. Firefox makes up the lion share of the rest, at 31.5 percent, while Chrome usage tripled since last year, up to 11.54 percent. Two years ago IE had two thirds of the global market locked down, and even if Internet Explorer 9 is the best thing since ActiveX, well, we just don't see the tide of this battle turning without MS calling in some serious reinforcements.

Update: If you needed more proof of Chrome's increasing popularity, we got a tip on this report from Softpedia confirming that Chrome is the fastest growing browser of the moment. Firefox is more or less flat and, well, you know all about how IE is faring.

[Via Engadget]

Why Justin Timberlake And His Social Network Co-Stars Deserve Oscars

noreply@blogger.com (Tal Rosenblum) — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 12:36:00 +0000

By now you've heard a lot about just how great The Social Network is, and all of its true. In a broad sense it's a great film, a rare movie that's actually about something bigger than itself. But a large part of why it's good is the kind of performances director David Fincher gets from his young actors. They're so good that, even though it's only nearly October we're ready to go out on a limb and start predicting Oscar nominations, not just for one or two of the Social Network actors, but three of them.

One of these actors is also one of the biggest pop stars in the world and, shockingly, he may be even better at acting than he is at singing. Another is the new Spider-Man. The third was, till now, probably best known as a low-rent Michael Cera clone. Pretty much no one saw this coming yet all three deserve recognition. Rather than wait for Oscar season, we're starting the campaign to get it for them early. After you see The Social Network this weekend, we hope you'll jump on the bandwagon with us and root for these three on their way to the Academy Awards. Here's our attempt to explain why all of them deserve at the least, a nomination.

Justin Timberlake for Best Supporting Actor

Confidence is something Justin Timberlake comes by naturally, a byproduct perhaps, of being born with so much talent. So playing Sean Parker might seem like a slam dunk for Timberlake. The Napster founder turned Facebook executive oozes confidence to the point of cockiness. On the surface he's Mark Zuckerberg's polar opposite, a man who can dominate any conversation and instantly become the center of attention anywhere he goes. But spends a few moments with Sean Parker and you'll start to see something else. Unlike Timberlake, confidence isn't something he comes by naturally.

Timberlake plays him as though the man we see is nothing more than an elaborately constructed façade. He's a mover and a shaker, and people accept him as the coolest person they know. That works for awhile, until they start to see through it. You get the sense in watching Timberlake's performance that Sean Parker doesn't believe any of his bullshit himself, that he's secretly terrified of spinning out of control and ending up in obscurity, even while he's drinking champagne, banging his way through groups of teenage girls, and making grandiose promises.

Timberlake's performance, perhaps in part because of his background as a dancer, is in the way he moves. His posture is always too perfect, his movements too exact, as if he's a man who's thought out everything he'll do in advance, as if he's only going through pre-programmed motions. He's a puppet pulling his own strings. And eventually, when Parker finally really does lose control, Timberlake captures him as a man waking up from a dream he doesn't want to end. He fast talks into the phone attempting to convince Zuckerberg that nothing has changed, but his fading expression, the way he pulls at his hair, the panic in his voice says something else. Justin Timberlake lets Sean Parker fall apart slowly on screen and as the character creates more and more bullshit you'll see it in his eyes that he never believed most of it and even though he's one of the cool kids, Parker's driven by the same insecurity that drives Zuckerberg, the desperate feeling that he's always on the outside looking in. Sean Parker may always be the center of attention, but Justin Timberlake portrays him as a man who secretly knows he's operating on the fringe.

Andrew Garfield for Best Supporting Actor

The key to Andrew Garfield seems to be in his shoulders. He's such a skinny guy, with a soft voice and unassumingly handsome features, that the broad shoulders seem to be holding him up unnaturally, and without them he'd crumple to the floor, too weak, too insubstantial to stand by his own power. He overplayed this vulnerability a bit too much in Never Let Me Go, playing a young man whose fate was out of his control and who simply closed himself off as a result. But in The Social Network, playing the good-hearted and utterly overwhelmed Eduardo Saverin, Garfield straightens his shoulders and his gaze to create the film's complex moral center.

In the hands of another actor, Eduardo could simply be a victim, dazzled by Mark Zuckerberg's confidence and strung along on the Facebook project until cruelly shut out of the profits years later. But Garfield imbues Eduardo with a natural ease and grace that Mark lacks; we know instantly that he's better with girls and more popular among guys, and it's a hidden geekiness, not just sympathy, that draws him to Mark. Their unlikely friendship is the heart of the film, and with Eisenberg portraying the cold, unmoved Zuckerberg, it's up to Garfield to show us all the pain it causes both boys when the friendship falls apart.

Aaron Sorkin's script is widely credited for creating these complex characters, but Garfield's two best scenes are silent: the tears in his eyes when Mark asks him to come back to California and help build Facebook, and the slow rage building on his face when he learns he's been cut out of the company. Eduardo always wears dapper suits, always knows the right thing to say, but Garfield's gangly shoulders and wide open face always betray his startling youth. The Social Network is about boys trying to be titans, and Garfield nails the performance by constantly seeming caught between the two.

Jesse Eisenberg for Best Actor

When discussing the work of Jesse Eisenberg, it's not uncommon for same words and phrases to pop up: “weakling,” “nebbish,” “Michael Cera Clone.” They're not exactly wrong. Looking at his previous work in films like Zombieland and Adventureland, he's guilty of playing repetitive characters. In The Social Network, however, not only does he flip this reputation on its ear, he puts on one of the best performances by a lead actor that we will see all year.

Front and center on the stage of David Fincher's film, Eisenberg's Mark Zuckerberg is a powerful and captivating character. He's bull-headed and brilliant, but what makes Eisenberg's performance truly noteworthy is how sympathetic he is. Over the course of the film, Zuckerberg alienates his girlfriend with elitist and piggish remarks, sacrifices and destroys his relationship with his best friend to better help the company he founded while betraying former business partners. Yet, by the end of the film's two hour run time you sympathize with Zuckerberg because of his incredible dedication to his creation and an inability to overcome his own personality flaws. Eisenberg's performance is simply that great.

Zuckerberg is emotionally crippled by his drive which Eisenberg fuels with a cold stoicism. So much of the character is defined in his silence and mannerisms that when he does finally react to something it hits you like a shotgun blast – even though you never get the sense that he has lost control. He spits acid with precision, his words are never jumbled and he never says anything he doesn't mean. Eisenberg doesn't control the character and as much as he becomes him. It's simply flawless.

BIG NEWS! – Inception Ending Revealed by Sir Michael Caine

noreply@blogger.com (Tal Rosenblum) — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 08:03:00 +0000

As if you didn't know what the spinning top ending really meant! Still, if there's a glimmer of doubt in your mind, check out what Sir Michael Caine says about it here. Requisite WARNING: SPOILERS alert is flashing red now.

Ok, so if you hark back to the ending, you'll remember Cobb was reunited with his children and father (Caine) in a sob-alicious final scene. As his usual style dictates, he spins the silver top to double-check he's back in reality, but doesn't care enough to watch whether it ever stops spinning (thus, representing he's in real life).

Caine let slip with the spoiler-goods when he appeared on BBC Radio to promote his autobiography. This is what he had to say about director Christopher Nolan's ending:

"[The spinning top] drops at the end, that's when I come back on. If I'm there it's real, because I'm never in the dream. I'm the guy who invented the dream."

There you have it, final confirmation the ending was exactly what you suspected. I still maintain my stance that Nolan should've done a Ridley Scott and filmed several different endings to puzzle us with—or that Caine's character should've placed his hand on the spinning top, breaking the motion himself and denying us the chance to see it wobbling slightly. Also, he should've kept his piehole trap-door shut too. [BBC via ScreenRant]

Apple No. 1 in Smartphone Satisfaction Survey

noreply@blogger.com (Tal Rosenblum) — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 08:00:00 +0000

For the fourth consecutive year, J.D. Power and Associates has ranked Apple highest in customer satisfaction among smartphone manufacturers.

Apple scored 800 out of a possible 1,000 points, according to the J.D. Power study that asked over 6,800 smartphone owners to rank their experiences between January and June 2010. The study, released today, showed that Apple scored particularly well in ease of operation, operating system, features, and physical design.

Motorola, at 791 points, and HTC, at 781 points, grabbed the second and third spots, respectively.

The factors key to overall satisfaction among smartphone users were, in order of importance: ease of operation (26 percent); operating system (24 percent); physical design (23 percent); features (19 percent); and battery function (8 percent).

With the popularity of the App Store, it should come as no surprise that mobile apps are becoming more important to smartphone users. More than two-thirds of users download games and 54 percent report downloading travel software like maps and weather applications. The study also showed that 41 percent of smartphone owners download utility applications and 36 percent download business-specific apps.

J.D. Power also released a study today on customer satisfaction with traditional wireless handsets. That survey found that owners of traditional mobile phones are keeping them longer. J.D. Power pointed to the economic downturn as one possible reason for that.

Earlier this week the University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index ranked Apple No. 1 in customer satisfaction for the seventh straight year.

Another recent survey from J.D. Power questioned customers on the quality of their cell phone calls. Of those surveyed, 14 percent said they definitely or probably will switch to a different carrier in the next 12 months due to a high number of call-related problems. While Verizon Wireless ranked highest among customers, AT&T came in last in all but two regions in the U.S.

[Via CNet News]

iPad Projector Renders 3D Objects for the Naked Eye

noreply@blogger.com (Tal Rosenblum) — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 07:58:00 +0000

Experimental design team Aircord Labs has released a proof of concept videodemonstrating an iPad with 3D capabilities visible to the naked eye. The effect is achieved with a specially designed projector that beams images into a pyramid shaped screen.

Once projected, viewers can move around the floating imagery, almost as if they were real objects in space. At the moment, the design is very pretty to look at and very little beyond that. But it shouldn't be hard to imagine practical, fun. Think 3D blueprints for engineers, or getting a better look at a new pair of shoes before buying. Or, let's just be honest and admit this will be quickly adapted for porn. [Aircord Labs via CreativeApplications]

Next Year's Xbox Live Update NEEDS These 8 Features

noreply@blogger.com (Tal Rosenblum) — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 06:35:00 +0000

The Fall 2010 Xbox update is pretty good. There are a lot of additions of third-party content, and the UI is, you know, better. But users want more.

Here are some ideas, dudes on the Xbox team, that I'd really want to see.

1.) Improved speed
Back in 2008, when you first showed off the New Xbox Experience (the new dashboard), everything was fast, smooth and fast. It was also fast. Did I mention fast? The problem was, I saw this at E3, where there were no ads and no animations to clutter up the experience. When the release hit, everything was bogged down and it was no faster than before. As good as the NEW new experience is, it's still pretty slow when you're pulling up the dashboard, loading up Netflix/ESPN/Zune and just cycling around. Definitely could use more optimization here. I'm not saying take the ads out, I'm just saying make sure none of it is slowing down the experience.

2.) DVR
The Xbox is already capable of acting both as a Windows Media Center Extender, being a front-end for using your PC as a DVR, and as a digital extender for fiber TV services. But why not use the new Xbox as a standalone DVR?

It's got the capacity—a 250GB hard drive built in to all non-cheapo models—and plenty of USB ports to support external digital recorders. Slap an ATI external CableCard receiver on there and Microsoft has a powerful DVR, one that's internet connected and capable of streaming video. And it's already in millions of living rooms.

3.) More streaming video
Netflix, ESPN and Hulu Plus is a good start, but the Xbox can be even amazing if Microsoft makes a few more business deals to get more content to the device. With the Xbox Live Gold subscription built in as part of the deal for half the customers already, Microsoft already has money coming in to make this happen without eating the fees themselves. Apple, Google, Roku, Boxee, TiVo, Sony and many others are all diving into the set-top-box space, and since Microsoft already has a box there, it only makes sense to expand their offerings to push everyone else out.

4.) More codec support
On the topic of video, everyone's been waiting years and years for Microsoft to support more codecs like MKV, which are popular among people who "download" instead of purchase. Having your box be capable of supporting this doesn't mean the people who are going to pay for Netflix or Hulu Plus won't, it just means the people who would turn elsewhere for a set-top-box that plays MKV will buy an Xbox 360 instead.

5.) Windows Phone integration
You know how Google TV lets you use your Android phone as a remote, and how Apple TV lets you use Apple Remote on your iPhone/iPad as a remote? Do that for your Windows Phone.

Also! Also! Because there's no "Xbox portable", like there is a PlayStation Portable to Sony's PlayStation 3, the Windows Phone will need to do. Tie this into games, like Madden, where you can call plays directly on your phone without the guy next to you seeing what you just did. Or in Halo, where you can have a scorecard or radar or otherwise interact with the game via another interface. Or, in a driving game, where it can be your rear view mirror. Developers can find lots of stuff to do with an extra interface.

6.) More apps, like Facebook and Twitter
An open API for developers to put apps on your TV would be phenomenal. We've seen Facebook and Twitter on the Xbox, which are decently implemented, but there can be lots more things people can do given the chance to access the 360's hardware. For example, a multi-person teleconferencing app using Kinect. Everyone's Xbox is already hooked up to their TV, and Kinect is going to be in plenty of houses.

7.) An external Blu-ray drive
It's most likely never going to happen, since Microsoft is betting heavily on streaming tech such as Netflix and Zune, but there's still a case to be made for Blu-ray. If I had the choice of playing Blu-ray discs rented from Blockbuster or Netflix, or watching the same movie streamed, I'd choose Blu-ray every time because of the quality. Right now, the lack of Blu-ray is the biggest checklist item that Sony has over the Xbox.

8.) Remote play-along
Imagine being able to spectate your friend play a game, similar to how OnLive works on the PC/Mac. Having this built into the Xbox on the system level means you could play along and chat with your buddies across the country when they're playing a single-player game, chatting and giving them suggestions on what to do. It might not be too practical now, with the upload speeds of most homes not being high enough to support even a compressed 1080p stream, it's been a personal dream of mine to do this with my buddies.

With these features, the Xbox would pretty much force out a lot of competing boxes and consoles. Other than the whole Blu-ray drive thing and the CableCard adapter, all this is doable in software. And if there's one thing Microsoft knows, it's software.

[Via Gizmodo]

Apple TV review (2010) [Via Engadget]

noreply@blogger.com (Tal Rosenblum) — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 06:30:00 +0000

You've been waiting, and it's finally here: the Apple TV review. Months before Steve Jobs announced the new set top box at Apple's annual fall event, we had been reporting on news that the company would strike out again into the TV market, offering a small, low-cost box that had more in common with the iPhone than the iMac. When those rumors came to fruition, we were presented with the completely revamped Apple TV -- a tiny black puck of a device priced at a staggering $99, and centered around a handful of completely new ideas (for the folks in Cupertino at least) about getting content onto your TV screen. The first is a new rental system which allows you to nab brand new TV shows at $0.99 a rental, and HD movies for $4.99 a go (or $3.99 for older titles). And that includes new releases the same day DVDs hit shelves (or Netflix distribution centers). Speaking of Netflix, the new Apple TV also features the rental service's "Watch Instantly" as a wholly integrated component of its offerings, alongside a new function the company calls AirPlay which will allow you to "push" video and audio content from your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch with the tap of a button. On top of that, the new ATV streamlines sharing from your home computers or laptops, making getting content you own onto your TV dead simple. So, has Apple finally solved the "second box" problem, or are they still struggling to turn this hobby into a real business? Follow along after the break for those answers (and more) in our full review of the Apple TV!

Hardware

The first thing you'll notice about the Apple TV is just how small it is. The matte black box clocks in at just 3.9 inches square, stands just 0.9 inches off of your table of choice, and weighs a measly 0.6 pounds. It's a quarter of the size of the previous Apple TV -- it's just that tiny. If you're worried about a new piece of gear taking up previous shelf space, the Apple TV certainly skirts that problem. Beyond its size, there's nothing particularly shocking about its appearance -- in most settings the simple box will go unnoticed. Still, like most Apple products, it's an elegantly designed piece of technology that you won't mind having around.

Wiring options for the device are minimal to say the least; around back you've got an Ethernet port, micro USB jack (for "service and support" they say), an HDMI port, an optical audio hook-up, and a spot for the power cable. If you're worried about wall warts, you're in luck -- the Apple TV has no need for external power bricks. Inside, the exact specs are unknown, but the ATV is powered by the A4 CPU, the same chip that powers the iPhone 4, iPad, and new iPod touch. Apple isn't fessing up on speed, but it's entirely possible the processor is clocked to 1GHz, like its tablet brethren. As far as memory and any local storage is concerned, however, we'll just have to wait for an iFixit teardown -- though we suspect it won't have more than 512MB of RAM. Apart from the wired internet, the Apple TV also has WiFi (802.11a/b/g/n).

In all, it's not a crazy combination, but it's relatively inexpensive hardware, and there's certainly enough power here to handle HD video (of the 720p variety, of course), graphically rich slideshows, and a few other visual perks.

Remote

The Apple TV comes with an absurdly minimal remote manufactured out of aluminum. The slim accessory is short on buttons (a menu key, play / pause key, and four way rocker with center button), and long on style. We're a little confused about the fact that the remote is silver instead of a matching black, but it's not a big issue. What's more concerning is the fact that getting around the menus and especially entering text is a chore with this remote, though this is also due in part to the way Apple has laid out text. Having to click click click your way to a password, movie title, or email address is pretty time consuming, but we'll have more on that in the software section in a moment.

If you're an iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch owner, you have a better option, luckily. The company just issued an update for its Remote app that allows you to control the Apple TV via a touch surface and virtual buttons -- but in this arrangement you get a proper onscreen keyboard as well. This is the way the ATV was meant to be controlled, as far as we're concerned.

Software and Content

If you're used to using the previous version of the Apple TV, the new interface won't really look all that, well... new. Your main navigation takes place in a menu which shows featured content along the top of the screen, a selection of sources below those, and a list of options for each source. As you venture deeper into the menus, you're presented with fairly standard rows of show or movie selections, or right-anchored lists of text with smaller preview images to the right. Front Row users should also feel right at home. Movie and show pages allow you to preview or purchase content, rate selections, or add items to your wish list (where you can later fish them out for purchase). For films, you can check out Rotten Tomatoes content, something we think is a a really nice inclusion here. All in all, basic control is stupidly easy -- there's almost nothing hidden from view.

Setting up the Apple TV was just as stupidly simple, and where a lot of boxes have more complicated code / account syncing, Apple just dials it all in via your iTunes account. When you first switch the box on you're asked for a choice of network and prompted for a password (if you have one) -- as we said before, the one place where the UI stumbles is text entry. For some reason, Apple decided a long list of letters would be easier than a more standard QWERTY-style grouping. It isn't. Traveling from end-to-end with the included remote (with no way to zip quickly down the line) was a painstaking process. Beyond that, you're asked to enter your iTunes account name and password, and if you're a Netflix user, you have to enter that data too. But, surprise surprise -- you don't have to go to the site's activation page to get your account playing nice with the Apple TV.

You can also set up multiple laptops or home computers on your home sharing network to stream to the TV, allowing for quick access to video, photos, and music you've got stored on your Mac or PC. After you flip on the appropriate settings (home sharing needs to be active on both your Apple TV and computer), grabbing your stuff remotely is clean and simple.

Renting content is as easy as you'd imagine, and Apple gives you 24 hours to watch a movie and 48 hours to watch TV episodes (the timer starts from when you begin viewing; you can hang onto unwatched content for 30 days). One interesting note is that while you can purchase or rent content on your iPad, iPhone, iPod, or computer and then watch it on your Apple TV, you can't do the reverse. So if you rent a movie on your ATV, you're watching it on your ATV, while you can transport a rental on another device around. For those of you trying to catch up on a season of a show by watching whenever possible, this might be a concern. We're guessing most will just opt for the instant gratification of sitting down and picking a flick to view then and there. If you're a Netflix user, you'll find that the interface here is tightly integrated. You can browse your queue, search, add content, and watch video inside the same UI that the rest of the Apple TV sports.

There are a few other perks, like YouTube, the ability to flip through photos (which actually is kind of great if you're using the Remote app), and internet radio -- but that's all really a side dish to the main course of pure, top shelf content consumption.

So what's missing? Quite a bit actually. In terms of channel selection for TV content, right now Apple is limited to partners ABC, Disney, Fox, and the BBC. The company has alluded to more partners in the offing, but right now the pickings are slim. Okay, but maybe you want to play a bunch of your downloaded or ripped content? Well, it better be an M4V, MP4, or MOV file, because you're not getting anything else onto the Apple TV. AVI, DivX, MKV, and a slew of other popular formats are obviously out -- so you'll have to wait for a decent jailbreak solution if you want to watch those files. And of course, you can't sideload any content or playback from a standalone hard drive. We might be crazy, but an option to connect to something like a Time Machine (or any networked drive) seems like it would be killer in conjunction with the ATV. If you're thinking you can use a network drive that does iTunes sharing, you'll be depressed to know that that won't fly with the Apple TV. You've got to use Home Sharing within iTunes, and that's not possible on third party drives, obviously.

It's also a little frustrating that Apple doesn't offer an option to purchase content and leave it in the cloud for streaming. We're sure there are lots of parents who'd like to have their kids' favorite movies on tap whenever they want them without having to crack a laptop or boot up a second machine, and plenty of other consumers want to revisit favorites. Amazon has a better idea with its purchasing options, providing a dedicated basket where you can access the stuff you've paid for from any device you choose (well, almost any device). Why Apple is solely focused on rentals here isn't clear to us -- we see no technical reason the company couldn't provide a "purchased items" location for content you want to own.

But those aren't really the most troubling issues we have. The company touts on its website that the Apple TV will have rentals available "often the same day they come out on DVD." In fact, this is one of the company's talking points about advantages of the Apple TV over competitors such as Roku, and Steve Jobs -- when introducing the device -- said that HD movies would be available to rent on the "day and date" of DVD releases. So, you want to watch Iron Man 2 right now? Tough luck -- it's not available to rent on the Apple TV, and won't be for 30 days. And if you were hoping to revisit the original Iron Man, you'll have to buy that title as well, it's been pulled back from rental (to capitalize on the release of the sequel, we'd suspect).

If you were thinking there would be special treatment for the Apple TV, think again: studios (and not Apple) will have discretion about what is and isn't made available for rental. That goes for TV too. Even though Modern Family was present in the demo that Jobs did at the fall event, it's not here for rental. If you want to catch up on season 1 of the show, it'll run you $40 to purchase. Season 2? That'll be $52.99. It seems that despite what it sounded like at the launch event, Apple doesn't have a complete handle on its partners, and for the most desirable (or lucrative) content, the studios are most definitely still pulling the strings. If we were conspiracy theorist types, we might even conclude that allowing Jobs to demo Iron Man 2 at the announcement and then pulling the title from rental come launch day was a little twist of the knife. But that's crazy talk.

Note: Early in our review period, 'Iron Man 2' was available as a rental, but this was in error and has since been corrected.

Image and Sound Quality

When streaming 720p content (particularly new movies) the clarity of video was impressive. There was certainly some very minor compression artifacting, but far far less than you would see on HD video on demand from your cable provider, and considerably less than with Amazon's HD streaming. As you can see in the comparison photo, HD content from Amazon on Roku's new XDS looks noticeably more blocky than the cleaner, dithered content coming to Apple's new box. This was true for SD content as well -- across the board, the Apple TV streaming video looked smoother, crisper, and clearer than its nearest competitors. The video quality obviously doesn't match up to the richness of full 1080p Blu-ray discs, but it looks damn good.

Sound quality was also superb -- standard stereo was rich and wide, while 5.1 was as crisp and encompassing as you'd expect (though also as you'd expect, not every piece of content you find will have a 5.1 soundtrack to accompany it). Obviously everyone's setup will vary, but in our experience the audio being pumped out of the Apple TV went beyond sufficient. For a $99 box, it's more than pulling its weight in the sound category.

AirPlay

A lot of the team here at Engadget feel like AirPlay could be a game-changing component of the Apple TV. The premise is simple: when using an iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch, AirPlay allows you to move content you're viewing or listening to over to the Apple TV, in realtime. That doesn't just go for videos you've downloaded or music in your iTunes playlists, but streaming content as well. That means that while you're watching a YouTube clip or even an HTML5 Viddler video on Engadget, you can tap the little AirPlay button and send the video to your TV. Unfortunately, AirPlay is only available right now for audio, and won't have its full implementation in place until November. Apple did demo the video pushing feature for us using an iPad, and the system worked flawlessly, save for a tiny lag in between sending the video and it popping up on the Apple TV. There are some lingering questions we have, however. For instance, we were told that while you can multitask on a device you're pushing content from, you can't put it to sleep, even if it's docked or charging. That means the screen will dim, but not shut off entirely, which seems like a weird choice. Hopefully the company will add some kind of charging awareness that allows you to pick some content, dock the device, and sleep the screen. We'll revisit this feature once it's available and give you the Engadget take on its usefulness.

As far as using the function for music, it worked without a hitch on our iPad running the iOS 4.2 beta, though there is that slight delay (say, for switching songs). Unlike video, you can sleep the device and have music continue to play, which makes sense given that iDevices also serve as iPods.

Wrap-Up

The Apple TV enters the market amid some pretty interesting competition. Roku has been making big moves in the cheap-and-simple set top category (especially with its new XDS), and the company just announced a partnership with Hulu to allow Hulu Plus users access to the site's content via a channel on Roku (and TiVo) devices. By comparison, the Apple TV offers far fewer options when it comes to channel surfing. Adding insult to injury, shortly after Apple's announcement of the Apple TV and its $0.99 rentals, Amazon announced that it would be making the same batch of TV shows available for purchase at $0.99 (and of course that goes for Roku devices too). That said, the Roku setup process and user interface is far less polished than Apple's offering, HD content doesn't look as crisp to our eyes, and its buffering generally takes longer to get started. It's not just Roku either -- there are options like the Boxee Box in the offing that will bring a slew of new choices to the table, like the ability to play pretty much any kind of content you'd like in one place.

But none of the other options we've tested have felt as simple, solid, and easy to use as the new Apple TV. Putting content concerns aside (which admittedly is difficult to do), the Apple TV has a lot going for it. The video and audio quality of the Apple TV is to be lauded, the company is making a lot of high quality titles available right off the bat, sharing from your current computers is a snap, and if you're a Netflix user, the inclusion here is perfectly seamless. The question is ultimately about ease versus options -- right now it's hard to whole-heartedly recommend the Apple TV even at its $99 price point given the thin list of partners Apple has courted. If you just want a dead simple movie rental box and you're not that picky about content, the Apple TV is a no-brainer. If, like us, you're looking for options good enough to make you can the cable, Apple's new box still feels a lot like a hobby.

5 Reasons to Pay Attention to Windows Phone 7

noreply@blogger.com (Tal Rosenblum) — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 06:21:00 +0000

With iOS and Android, two major mobile operating systems taking up a valuable share of the market and becoming increasingly popular, it may be easy to disregard the new kid in town, Windows Phone 7.

Windows Phone 7 is practically a total rebranding of what used to be Windows Mobile. A system that served us well early on, but began to show its age as newer mobile operating systems started taking the spotlight. Eventually, the stylus began to be phased out, making ways for screens that used our fingers for input. Many of the applications for the older Windows Mobile OS were designed with a stylus in mind, and quickly became frustrating for users.

There were some problems. It tried to capture the look and feel of the desktop version of Windows, and perhaps that wasn't the best route in the end. Even Steve Ballmer himself was once quoted as saying that the company "Screwed up with Windows Mobile."

Still, lessons have been learned, and other mobile OSes have tested the market, and Windows Phone 7 may end up being the product of learning from past mistakes.

Either way, we think Windows Phone 7 is worth keeping an eye on.

1) Xbox Live integration - Gamers who love the Xbox brand will also love the direct integration with LIVE. The games are already looking awesome, and thanks to Microsoft's strong position in the online gaming space with Xbox LIVE, they already have the strong advantage of a user-base that already enjoys the service. Add in the management capabilities (such as setting up their Avatar and managing their friends).

The ability to jump an from an XBLA (Xbox LIVE Arcade) game on your Xbox to the same game on your phone, when you have to leave the house should be another great feature, as well as the Avatar tools such as flashlights and levels (as in the tool, not the part of a game).

That also leads into….

2) Developers with lots of content! - There are already plenty of Apps confirmed to be coming to the the system. We've already seen that many of the essential applications such as Twitter, Netflix, OpenTable, Travelocity and Flixter are on their way. Not to mention, the company announced last month that the platform would bring more than 50 XBLA games to mobile. We don't have a concrete number, but that already sounds like a strong first few months. The developers are on board.

3) Marketing dollars - Microsoft has the marketing dollars to push this thing out the door and make everyone know it's coming. How much do reports say they are spending on marketing alone? Analysts estimate that they are spending about $400 million for the product's launch. If they can make the OS look as great through their commercials as it does in the demonstrations we've seen, they have a great shot at becoming one of the big names in the mobile OS market. Of course one may argue that it takes more than a few good ad campaigns to sell a product, it definitely gets them the attention they need from consumers. If they can scream the loudest when you walk into your local Sprint store, they can definitely rack up the customers.

4) Much more useful interface for touch, built for thumbs and fingers. - Let's face it. A lot of us, especially the guys, have big ol' fat thumbs. Previous versions of Windows Mobile had many applications that felt as if they were designed for stylus input. Sorry, but our chubby fingers don't have the precision of a stylus.

Luckily, this time around, the Tiles make navigating quick and easy. You can place various objects on your homescreen. For example, if you want to add a favorite contact, you can have them within easy reach on a Tile, and the icon is large so that even bigger hands can easily navigate.

5) Availability right out the gate - We already know that carriers in the US already include AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon. Meanwhile, HTC, Dell, Asus, HP, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Toshiba and LG are backing it on the hardware side. This obviously makes it much easier to distribute phones to people on various carriers and users can find a piece of hardware the suits their tastes and needs.

In the end...

Ballmer actually wasn't wearing pants when this picture was taken

…it will be a long journey for them to take a top place in the mobile OS world. it will take a serious marketing push. but remember, many of us laughed at the thought that Microsoft could ever build a successful gaming platform. By this holiday season, Windows Phone 7 will be in consumer hands. From there, it's a push to be regarded at the best.

11 Trends in Web Logo Design: The Good, the Bad and the Overused

noreply@blogger.com (Tal Rosenblum) — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 06:13:00 +0000

Designing and critiquing logos for web-based companies and startups is a pursuit of endless fascination for many of us. Over the years, we’ve seen enough startups come and go (and rebrand and merge) to fill a volume with how and how not to develop and execute a logo for a web company.
We’ve also picked up some knowledge about trends in this field. Some of the trends are good; others, regrettable. Others still are simply overused, which is the saddest scenario of them all. We hate to see a good design trick or typeface grow hackneyed over the course of a few months, but it happens all the time, unfortunately.

In this article, we’ve identified 11 trends in web company logo design. Hopefully, you’ll see a few here that apply to the startups and web apps we write about every day. And of course, we’ve included some handy illustrations as a sort of field guide to the logos of the web.

Take a look, and let us know what you think of these trends — and what trends we should have included — in the comments.

1. Badges and Buttons

We’ve moved away from the once-ubiquitious BETA! button, but location-esque badges, app-like icons, and “play” buttons are still showing up all over the web. These logos tend to be quite “shiny,” thanks to a few carefully-blended white gradient layers. The square logos have rounded corners. Some appear to glow as if lit from within, which is a compelling and trendy effect in itself. All in all, the badge-and-button set look quite touchable.

Still, this trend’s days may be numbered, if only due to overuse and association-bordering-on-marriage with the Apple/iPhone brand. See also: Wet floor effect. Unless you’re designing for a pure-play iPhone app shop, sail these seas with caution.

2. Speech Bubbles and Megaphones

If social web apps are all about communication, then it stands to reason that many social web company logos are all about talking. We see fewer logos that revolve around listening (if you happen to see a giant ear logo in the wild, do let us know), but megaphones and speech bubbles abound.

3. Fun With Opacity!

Remember the first time you discovered Multiply and Overlay blend modes in Photoshop? If that moment changed your life forever, then you probably understand the beauty of a simple, elegant logo that delicately plays with opacity.

While this logo treatment won’t work for every web app, it’s a versatile and timeless way to present classic shapes in a new light. We’re seeing this basic effect used simply in MasterCard-reminiscent designs, and we’re seeing much more complex opacity effects used in logos for HTML5 and Microsoft Silverlight, for example.

Playing with blending modes, opacity and overlapping shapes can also be a fun way to experiment with analogous color schemes.

4. Kawaii Illustration

Calling all woodland creatures: You’re wanted on the Internet. In fact, the only time you’ve been in greater demand than you are now was when Disney was making those saccharine “princess” films.

Why are these wide-eyed, adorable critters making their way into logo design? Apps are for adults, right? Especially apps such as Seesmic, a powerful web app dashboard for power users and the enterprise, and GitHub, an industry standard for source code hosting.

We don’t know exactly how, when or why kawaii made a comeback into serious-business logo design, but with logos this cute, who are we to complain?

5. Scripts, Slabs and Other Cool Fonts

Say it with me: “I will not use Archer for a web company’s logo design.”

Archer and its ilk were used to great effect over the past couple years on a number of memorable web company logos. That being said, the Year of the Slab is definitely not over. In fact, it’s more of an epoch than a traditional Gregorian year at this point. Slab serif fonts — if they’re unique fonts — are still a viable alternative to been-there-done-that sans serifs in logos, and the web community still enjoys them.

That being said, a good, juicy script can be one of the liveliest, most unexpected logo choices yet, particularly if your logo is solely typographic. Rephoria uses my personal favorite, Candy Script, a swash-heavy number that’s almost too voluptuous for work but which still makes the cut for a single-word logo.

Just remember: When using more unusual fonts for logo design, restraint and legibility are key.

6. Verdant and Plant-Inspired

Plants and leaves aren’t just for green tech companies, folks. When you’re trying to project growth, one of the most obvious logo choices is flora. A shy set of leaves, a furling bud, a sprouting seed — what could better convey your company’s fresh problem solving and rapid expansion?

7. Quadrangles

It’s not a rectangle, it’s not a square, but whatever it is, it’s popping up everywhere. Quadrangles are, if the web is to be believed, the new dots. From rhombuses to parallelograms to indescribable yet angular blobs, these shapes strive for post-modern and consumer-friendly.

8. Retro Game References

Perhaps it’s because the newer crop of web designers are also children of the late eighties, but we’ve been seeing a lot of pseudo-retro, video game-inspired logo work lately. While these designs are definitely quirky, geeky and cool, beware using them for a general audience; not everyone feels the same nostalgia we do for an 8-bit, pixelated graphic of a mushroom.

9. Color-Coordinated Compound Words

Web startup names and logos are inextricably linked. We’re a couple years past the compound word phase (which was most virulent right before the tragic “missing vowel” phase that gave birth to web companies with names like “Packg” and “Clevrr”), but we haven’t left behind our love for merged-word logos in two snappy, coordinating colors.

This trick is one of the oldest in the book. It was notably used for Vignelli Associates’ 1967 rebranding of American Airlines, whose two-word name became a one-word logo in red and blue.

10. Logotypes

The big boys of the web, sites such as Google and Facebook, have inspired the logo design of a generation with their utter simplicity. In many cases, those initial logotypes were less legitimate logo design and more “put our startup’s name in a simple font and stick it up on the web, we’ll deal with branding later.”

The name-in-a-sans-serif look says your company has nothing to prove and that you focus on product over promotion. If it’s well-executed, it’s a powerful statement to make. However, if poorly executed, it looks hasty, sloppy, juvenile and amateurish.

Logotypes can also be a great excuse to play with exciting typefaces and trendy treatments, such as the embossed or letterpress look that’s getting so much play these days, thanks to CSS3.

11. Nodes, Spokes and Hubs

Between concepts such as linked data and the synaptic web, you had to see these designs coming. They remind us of molecular structure and K’nex, an updated take on the crop of mid-century modern Sputnik-inspired designs of the 1950s. These logos are usually intended to represent the interconnectedness of people and content on the web, or, in a more literal interpretation, computer hardware circuitry.

Two mystery webOS phones, Touchstone dock certified

noreply@blogger.com (Tal Rosenblum) — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 17:03:00 +0000

New webOS phones confirmed in certification:

HP's next round of webOS phones edged closer to launch today with a certification for Canada and the US. The P102UNA and P102EWW have both shown at the third-party tester TÜV Rheinland and don't correspond to existing models, such as the original Pre (P100) or Pre Plus (P101). Both may be variants of the Roadrunner HD flagged last month, which would get a 960x640 screen as its centerpiece feature.

Also on show is a listing for a new inductive battery charger. The move hints that the Touchstone will carry on past the current webOS line and will get a redesign, though whether it's to improve functionality or just to fit in with the design of the future smartphones isn't as evident.

Another unnamed device and a car charger are also part of the details.

Timing isn't given away by the appearances, although TÜV certification usually happens just several weeks before a release. Palm was using the CES expo in January to show new phones until it was bought by HP, but that trend may continue as few companies launch major phones at the very end of the year.

Latest iPod Nano's Materials Cost Just $43.73: Half What the First Nano Cost

noreply@blogger.com (Tal Rosenblum) — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 16:30:00 +0000

Six generations on, and the cost of materials has decreased dramatically from thefirst-ever iPod Nano, which cost $89.97—for just 2GB. The 8GB version that came out recently has parts totaling $43.73.

Even the second-gen iPod Nano, which was double the capacity of the first one, cost a whopping $72.24. Of course, this was back in the day when a 4GB iPod Nano cost $199 upfront, compared to the $149 an 8GB-er costs now.

iSuppli has listed manufacturing costs at around $1.37, and while this is the first model to contain a touchscreen component, the screen and Toshiba-originated memory together costs just half of the total materials cost.

Via iSuppli

Caught on Video: Chuck Norris Solves iPhone 4 Signal Issues

noreply@blogger.com (Tal Rosenblum) — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 16:00:00 +0000

If you’re having weak signal issues with your iPhone 4, and your brand new bumper case just isn’t cutting it, I’ve got some great news for you tonight. Turns out, tough man and living legend Chuck Norris is all you need to cure your somewhat common problem. In fact, his presence is so powerful, he doesn’t even need to be there with you to fix the situation. Just throw down a picture of Chuck next to your iPhone 4, and KA-POW, as fast as you can say Walker, Texas Ranger your signal issues are fixed. Hit play on the video above.

I’m all of a sudden jonesing for an official Chuck Norris case for the iPhone 4. Anyone know if there are any out there I could purchase?

Did you know? Chuck Norris counted to infinity… twice. He can also slam a revolving door.

[Via: iPhoneDownloadBlog]