Group items tagged

Disney announced a new toy line that makes the iPad an interactive play mat. The new toy is called Disney Appmates, it interacts with a free app that brings it to life. Pixar's Cars are the first toys able to interact with this app. Each car includes a capacitive sensor. When it is placed on the iPad the screen adjusts to the position of the car, so it can interact with the character. With this app you'll be able to explore, compete in races and complete missions. What's great about the new toys: the toys aren't designed to scratch the screen and the toys are lightweight. With this app it has been proven that on April 2010 the iPad is now popular with kids as it is with adults. 

This article is about how the next generation consoles will have the ability to interact with smartphones and tablets so that players can always stay connected to their games. Large publisher Electronic Arts has decided to share a few details about the next gen consoles. Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgenson quoted; "I do think once again without describing the new consoles, you've got to assume they're going to be highly integrated into peoples homes, and there will be a lot of capability for interaction."He also went on to explain that the new consoles will allow the players to interact with them not just through their controllers but also through tablets and smartphones. He quoted; "I think it's going to be an extension of moving from whats in the living room, to whats outside of the house. Even though it might not be playing on the console, it's connected to the console in some way.

This post is about an app created by eleven year old Victoria Walker and David Grau that helps prevent texting while driving. With it people can form "packs" and will be able to prevent their friends form texting while driving. This is done through setting off a loud baring noise that dosn't stop until the offender stops texting. I believe that this is an amazing app as it will help prevent accidents. Also it makes people more interactive and aware of the dangers of texting and driving. This app will cause more interaction because it doesn't make preventing texting while driving a chore, instead it makes it fun. Furthermore i find it amazing that this app was created by eleven year olds. This really goes to show that you can do anything, and you don't have to wait until you get older. It shows that opportunity awaits everywhere. In conclusion I would like to say that those kids are brilliant and they've created an amazing app.

Great post. Apps that serve the most basic purpose are always the best.

Twitter could potentially change our politics in multiple countries for better or for worse. This article describes how twitter has changed the landscape of voting for a president, party, or prime minister. Many countries have adopted twitter as a means of reaching and interacting with their voters. Some examples could be Barack Obama, who has a group of 100 people working on social media for his campaign. Mr. Pinera, the president of Chile has also made it mandatory for all of his cabinet members to get twitter so everyone can interact. Politicians though, have also abused this system by making either very rude tweets to anti-party members or making bland tweets to not offend anyone (causing less followers towards the party.) I would like to call this e-politics, and I believe it is change towards the better. Expanding into the internet for new voters is a genius idea that all parties should add to their campaign.

Keio University in Japan decided to create something where plants react to you and display a variety of different emotions on your computer etc. (example in the picture) Yes, it is a real actual plant sprouting out of a box, which has sensors and microphones that monitor its surroundings. These plants are "rigged up" and they don't wilt for nearly a year. That's pretty cool! 

This article describes 15 new apps that are exciting, innovative and unique that you should keep an eye out for. Being a person who uses apps every day I am always searching for new and cool things to interact with. One of the cool apps featured is My-script Calculator. It allows you to write in your own calculations and it has the technology to read what you wrote and give an answer which I see as pretty cool.

This article describes 15 new apps that are exciting, innovative and unique that you should keep an eye out for. Being a person who uses apps every day I am always searching for new and cool things to interact with. One of the cool apps featured is My-script Calculator. It allows you to write in your own calculations and it has the technology to read what you wrote and give an answer which I see as pretty cool.

This article mentions a new invention by West Health Institute in San Diego.  This new invention is called the Reflexion Rehabilitation Measurement Tool (RMT). It uses your Windows 7 computer and Microsoft Kinect to help patients suffering from musculoskeletal disease to get their daily physical therapy and help patients stay on track. It also helps keep the patients involved with interactive feedback so that their doctors can see their progress and help the patients constantly improve in a fun way. This new technology will also help bring down the cost of healthcare as well as the number of doctor visits a patient has to make without compromising quality.  This article is all about eLifestyle and how technology can help improve our daily lives and in this case health. With this technology we can improve health care and bring down the cost that comes with the therapy. This tool can help patients stay connected with their doctors and constantly work and learn new physical therapy routines for the patients needs without long doctor visits. I think this is a brilliant idea that will help save time and money opening up room to help treat more people with musculoskeletal disease.

This post is about Online Universities and why they don't compare to the real thing. Products like Saba LMS, Moodle, and iTunes U have made e-learning mainstream, and most universities offer and allow some or most of their coursework to be completed online. First off, the concern with many online universities and colleges is post-graduation employment statistics. Most have very low graduation rates. A government recruited states that "it's not ideal. It doesn't set a baseline expectation, for me or for the people he or she will meet in the field. If I just need to check off a 'degree' box on a requirements form, online will do, but if two candidates are similar, I'm going with the one from Stanford or UVA." Moreover, the differences come down to two things: brand and social interaction. Traditional schools can clearly understand reputations, strengths and weaknesses. Without historical data and a history of success or failure, the online schools' GPAs, class standing and other performance metrics are just numbers and statistics. The author of this article also states that "Giant online schools that accept pretty much everyone may be democratizing education, but they're not helping employers or anyone else separate out the best and the brightest." This can hurt the prestige, and ultimately the graduates of the school. This issue relates to the "eLifestyle" tag because in the end it will definitely affect not only the students, but the regular citizens of a country. The graduates of universities, online of traditional,  will be the leaders of the future, and I believe that traditional universities and colleges are better because professors can get to know and understand students at a different level. It is hard to judge or mark a student based only on online text. For instance, you will never be able to distinguish a student that truly tries and works hard but cannot understand the information properly to a student that understands it but is lazy and slacks off.

Today The Wii U came out, and even before that there are already positive posts about it. This Article talks about the Wii U's features, compares it to other consoles, and talks about Nintendo's future. The Wii U seems to have made quite an entrance, with many positive replies and it has been sold out everywhere in my area. Its main Qualities is amazing Multiplayer, as it has been designed to have fun with friends and family. Its new controller is also very interesting, as it has a built in touch screen. This is a big improvement as it allows for more control and eliminates screen picking as you can hide what you are doing and only see it on your controller. It also has completely free online interaction which puts it a step above the Xbox. As for its Hardware, it's processing is about 3 times as good as the Xbox' or PS3's and it also has a much improved graphics card. It also has its traditional motion sensor and controller, allowing for fun sword fighting and other motion controlled games. Overall, I recommend the Wii U for everyone, as it gives a lot of fun to yourself, and all your family/friends. It as an amazing console And will bring a lot o fun to your life.

The new Wii U review came out today. The Wii U is longer than the old one and looks sleeker. Also it's lovely fingerprint black. It has an HDMI port (cord is included), other USB ports, and a SD card slot. It runs on an IBM Power-based multi-core processor and an AMD Radeon custom high-def GPU. It comes in 8GB of internal flash memory for $300 and for $350 you get 32GB of memory. The Gamepad is pretty much all your Nintendo devices in one. It comes with a camera. The battery life is about 3.5 hours with everything turned down. If your parents are watching TV you can still play on the gamepad. The pro controller is small copy of the PS3 and Xbox 360's controller. The battery life is 6-10 hours. Overall there are many interactive games and the family will love playing together. eLifestyle because this will become the new trend. Many people will want to get it. Sunday nights the family will get together and play all night. Economics because the Wii U is going to be big competition for the other companies because they don't have a gamepad and you can play while dad is watching CFL playoffs. 

LG released its newest refrigerator called the Smart Thing.which as you can guess, is a "smart" fridge. The fridge can communicate and interact with your Android phone to complete or help complete some of its tasks. This fridge can tell you what is in the fridge, scan barcodes of food products, suggest recipes based on the user's preferences and lifestyle, notify expiration dates, and count your calories. All these features can be done on an Android smartphone. Everyday, technology is improving itself to be better than its predecessor and allowing us to live simpler, more automated lives. This fridge is bringing computing into the kitchen by allowing us to do more things with our fridge other than just store food. We can now have our questions like "when will the eggs expire?" answered automatically by this new fridge. It appears as time goes on, the implementation of computers into our daily lives will be more and more prominent. The LG Smart Thinq is an amazing appliance because it is redefining the refrigerator entirely by making it so that modern fridges should soon have built-in computers. Yes this fridge is expensive at about $4500, but over time this price will drop to something more reasonable and also influence other companies to make fridges just like this one. Though this is a cool fridge, I still wonder who would buy a $4500 fridge.

This article tells how the constant evolution of technology has enabled students to teach themselves without the need of a teacher. One way technology has been proven  to help students teach themselves is when the MIT Media Lab delivered tablets to schools in a remote village in Ethiopia. With only the tablets, the children taught themselves the ABCs and even found their way around restrictions MIT put into the tablets. Another way students can teach themselves with technology is proven is by an 11 year old girl  from Pakistan that passed a university level class even after the government blocked Youtube which was the source of the videos she used to study. Thanks to a Portugese professor who uploaded the videos to a website the girl could access, she was able to complete the course. Our access to technology influences us by allowing to be (mostly) self-sufficient since we do not have to rely on the help of teachers completely to learn. With this, students can get homework done more easily and be up to date on lessons taught in class. I think that students cannot teach themselves solely on technology since it isn't that evolved yet. I think this is a good thing that students cannot learn only with technology because in school, it is easier to learn things when someone else explains it to you, promotes more social interaction, saves the jobs of teachers, and makes it harder to procrastinate. I believe that eventually students will be able to learn at home with only the Internet because of how fast technology evolves and how much information is stored everyday.

With the advancement in technology, the human race is slowly headed in the opposite direction. With internet access on almost every electronic device, it has become our main source of communication. This advancement in communication are making people less dependent on social interaction. With the ability to order food online we are allowed to order necessities without leaving the comfort of our homes. This is crucial because without the need to leave your home, many people would take advantage of this and not be active both socially and physically. This can lead to many medical problems as people wont have the need to get off their couch and workout. Some positive aspects of being able to order food and other necessities online is the fact that is efficient and easy to do. Another bonus is the fact that the order will be sent immediately and I find that there is less room for error when you are able to type what ever it is you want and not have a language barrier with the people on the other side of the order. 

Earlier today, Twitter announced  a brand new update for it's searching features for the web and smartphones including Android and IOS. This new update adds a search button to the Iphone making it up to speed with Androids and any form of a tablet. Also, this update improves search results for photos, tweets and twitter accounts. Secondly, the connect tab automatically defaults to interactions which will display new followers, mentions as well as re tweets. Lastly, which is probably the most favourite new addition, is a change in Twitters mobile implementations handle links. Meaning, you can now click a URL directly from your twitter timeline without having to open a related tweet. This is the new twitter search update that was released earlier today. Make sure to install this update and the mobile site is already sporting the latest updates, but you will need to update your IOS or Android smartphone at their respective store.

This article talks chiefly about Google Glass, a new type of device that Google aims at putting out on the consumer market by the end of this year. First, it discusses how even though our technology satisfies all our wants and needs, we are often severely distracted by it. We are looking at everything through a screen that we hold in a way that acts as a barrier between us and the world. What Google is trying to do with Glass is make doing simple things like using GPS and replying to texts a lot more easier. With Glass, you don't have to walk around looking down on your phone oblivious to all that goes around you to find your way to the place you need to get to. Some problems with Glass are that it needs data through Wi-Fi on its own and that if it has no connection it's functionality is greatly limited. Since Glass can record video and it's almost unnoticeable, there is a privacy concern because many people may get filmed on video without them knowing. Also, because most of the interaction is through voice commands, it may become hectic to use the device if it does not understand you when you speak. Right now Google Glass may seem like a gimmick but the longer people are exposed to it the more they will understand its value and potential uses. Basically the question is not if people will use Google Glass, but when.

This article disuses how some people (mostly teens) have been getting "addicted" to facebook. In this article a girl named Newton (not her real name) says that "I can go a whole day without Facebook," she said. "But I've never made it through an entire weekend." Although there are no statistics on "Facebook addiction" -- it isn't an actual medical diagnosis therapists say they're seeing more and more people like Newton who've crossed the line from social networking to social dysfunction. "Last Friday, I had three clients in my office with Facebook problems," said Paula Pile, a marriage and family therapist in Greensboro, North Carolina. "It's turned into a compulsion -- a compulsion to dissociate from your real world and go live in the Facebook world." Facebook can lower social interaction among teens, as well as lower their study time, and family time. I think people shouldn't take facebook this seriously. I personally do not consider facebook as such an important thing in your life. Facebook is supposed to be used to check emails, stay in touch with your friends etc. Not to waste countless hours on games and other apps on facebook, just going through people's pictures and profiles. Instead there is so many other things to do with your life.

Can you imagine that instead of using heavy and boring textbooks, we use IPADS IN SCHOOL!!  iPads are more interactive and can't be damaged as much as textbooks are. Though iPads won't be coming to our school anytime soon, there are many reasons why they should include iPads instead of textbooks. One, you're saving paper, and another is that instead of carrying heavy textbooks, you only carry one very thin and light iPad, this was known to help with your health. 

This article is about how an iphone app that can change the iphone into an interactive toy for children. This app allows children to transform the iphone into different vehicles. It also expands the imagination of children because it requires children to use different building materials for the surrounding of the iphone to make it seem realistic.This app is also very cheap for only $1.99 and make children more creatice

Childhood classic A Charlie Brown Christmas has made its way to the iPad as an interactive book.The app turns the 1965 television special into an interactive children's book, giving kids the chance to play Schroeder's piano, finger paint with the gang, go carolling with the Peanuts choir, and participate in the Spectacular Super-Colossal Neighborhood Christmas Lights and Display Contest

TALK TO THE HAND!! Microsoft launches a new product which is called "OmniTouch." It can be used on really anything, on any surface that sense finger position. you can use the OmniTouch on arms, hands, notebooks, and tables. It uses a picoprojector and a 3D scanner similar to kinect. 

Soon you, too, will be able to talk to the hand. A new interface created jointly by Microsoft and the Carnegie Mellon Human Computer Interaction Institute allows for interfaces to be displayed on any surface, including notebooks, body parts, and tables. The UI is completely multitouch and the "shoulder-worn" system will locate the surface you're working on in 3D space, ensuring the UI is always accessible. It uses a picoprojector and a 3D scanner similar to the Kinect.