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Dan R.D.

Sony Sets Its Sights on Augmented Reality [31May11] - 0 views

  • The future of mobile gaming will merge the virtual and real worlds.
  • Unlike many augmented reality systems, Smart AR does not use satellite tracking or special markers to figure out where to overlay a virtual object. Instead, it uses object recognition. This means it works where GPS signals are poor or nonexistent, for example, indoors. The markerless system is more difficult to pull off, but it allows many more everyday objects to be used.
  • Sony has dabbled with the technology before, using two-dimensional barcodes known as CyberCodes as markers for tracking objects.
Dan R.D.

How Mobile Can Bridge The Digital And Physical Worlds In New Ways [01Jun11] - 0 views

  • appending real-world purchase information to its treasure trove of online behavioral data will vastly increase the value of customers’ profiles and increase the rates Google (NSDQ: GOOG) can charge its advertisers. It will be a way for Google to increase its local presence. NFC (near-field communications) is too often equated simply with payments, but Google understands that NFC tags have broad application (working like Quick Response [QR] and other 2D barcodes do today). Google can help retailers use NFC tags for in-store promotions and check-ins, augmenting the understanding of customer behavior for ad targeting.
  • Numerous players—from Internet pure players to operators and retailers—are embracing the mobile/social/local combo. Unifying the online and offline worlds via mobile will create long-term market disruption. There are plenty of new opportunities opening up if you center your approach around the notion of context, trying to invent new product and services that will tie together places, brands, and consumers. Think about mobile augmented reality. At the end of the day, it is all about facilitating the discovery and understanding of information around you.
Dan R.D.

Books2Barcodes: Converting Great Books Into 2D Barcodes - 0 views

  • What is Books2Barcodes? Books2Barcodes is an ongoing effort to convert all the world's great books to QR codes (2D barcodes). Each work featured here is the entire text of a piece of classic literature translated into several thousand barcodes. With a mobile device equipped with a camera and a barcode-scanning app, you can experience the joy of a great book as read through 800-character fragments on your cellphone.
Dan R.D.

$500 To Turn Your iPhone Into a EEG Heart Monitor (video) [31May11] - 0 views

  • Every 34 seconds someone suffers from a heart attack in the US. In the fight against this insane plague, startups are scrambling to find ways to leverage popular technology. The latest attempt is SHL Telemedicine‘s SmartHeart, a smart phone enabled electrocardiagram (ECG) device that only takes 30 seconds to analyze your heart and email the results to your doctor. Now nearly anyone can take an ECG by strapping the palm sized monitor to your chest and pushing a few buttons on your phone. No need for bulky machines, conductive gel, or an on site trained clinician. Check out the video presentation on SHL’s newest health gadget below. Aiming to come to market with a price tag near $500, SmartHeart could be an affordable way to recruit everyday citizens in the fight against cardiovascular disease.
Dan R.D.

Nokia Abandons 2011 Profit Goal [31May11] - 0 views

  • PARIS — Nokia, the cellphone giant battling to maintain its position in the face of competition from the iPhone and Android, said Tuesday that it was abandoning its 2011 profit targets after an unexpectedly poor second-quarter showing. Shares in Nokia tumbled 17.5 percent, closing at €4.75 in Helsinki, after the company, which is based in Espoo, Finland, said “multiple factors are negatively impacting” sales, particularly lower selling prices and a reduced sales volume.
  • “The Symbian portfolio is in terminal decline,” Mr. Jeffrey said, “so the importance of the Windows phone is even greater now.”
  • Nokia lowered its forecast for second-quarter sales in its devices and services business to “substantially below” the range of €6.1 billion to €6.6 billion, or $8.8 billion to $9.5 billion, it had previously forecast.
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  • “Given the unexpected change in our outlook for the second quarter, Nokia believes it is no longer appropriate to provide annual targets for 2011,” it said
  • A world-beater just a few years ago, Nokia remains the world’s largest cellphone maker by unit sales. But it has fallen behind Apple, maker of the iPhone, to the No.2 position when measured by revenue generated in the mobile phone market.
Jan Wyllie

The Human Algorithm [20May10] - 0 views

  • A common mistake for those seeking to cope with this profound disruption is to confuse technology with innovation. Algorithms, apps and search tools help make data useful but they can’t replace the value judgements at the core of journalism.
  • Genuine innovation requires a fundamental shift in how journalists think about their role in a changed world. To begin with, they need to get used to being ‘curators’; sorting news from the noise on the social web using smart new tools and good old fashioned reporting skills.
  • I find it helps to think of curation as three central questions: * Discovery: How do we find valuable social media content? * Verification: How do we make sure we can trust it? * Delivery: How do we turn that content into stories for a changed audience?
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  • With some like-minded souls, I founded Storyful in early 2010.
  • he only way a curator can ultimately sort news from noise is to join the social media conversation which emerges from news events. Not just listen, but engage directly, openly and honestly with the most authentic voices.
  • Every news event in the age of social media creates more than a conversation, it creates a community.
  • When news breaks, a self-selecting network gathers to talk about the story. Some are witnesses – the creators of original content – others are amplifiers – passing that content on to a wider audience. And in every group are the filters, the people who everyone else looks to for judgement.
  • Twitter is the door to that community.
  • We had more profound experiences of this Human Algorithm at work in recent weeks, most notably with reports of mass graves being discovered outside the besieged Syrian town of Deraa. Interaction with Facebook groups led us to Twitter conversations and YouTube videos. E-mail conversations with US-based academics has led us to key translations and satellite imagery.
  • This is the ‘Human Algorithm’ at work; the wisdom of a social media community harnessed through open, honest and informed engagement.
  • Storyful judges the credibility of a source on social media by their behaviour and status within the community
  • Proximity to the event. • Established journalistic, academic, or official credentials. • Past behaviour on the social web. • Status withi
  • established activist/political/social media group.
  • it is the oldest journalistic skill of all which gives this process meaning and that is engagement.
D'coda Dcoda

Twitter unmasks anonymous British user in landmark legal battle [30May11] - 0 views

  • Twitter has been forced to hand over the personal details of a British user in a libel battle that could have huge implications for free speech on the web.The social network has passed the name, email address and telephone number of a south Tyneside councillor accused of libelling the local authority via a series of anonymous Twitter accounts. South Tyneside council took the legal fight to the superior court of California, which ordered Twitter, based in San Francisco, to hand over the user's private details.It is believed to be the first time Twitter has bowed to legal pressure to identify anonymous users and comes amid a huge row over privacy and free speech online.Ryan Giggs, the Manchester United footballer named as being the plaintiff in a gagging order preventing reporting of an alleged affair with a reality TV model, is separately attempting to unmask Twitter users accused of revealing details of the privacy injunction.
  • However, Giggs brought the lawsuit at the high court in London and the move to use California courts is likely to be seen as a landmark moment in the internet privacy battle.
  • Ahmed Khan, the south Tyneside councillor accused of being the author of the pseudonymous Twitter accounts, described the council's move as "Orwellian". Khan received an email from Twitter earlier this month informing him that the site had handed over his personal information. He denies being the author of the allegedly defamatory material.
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  • "It is like something out of 1984," Khan told the Guardian. "If a council can take this kind of action against one of its own councillors simply because they don't like what I say, what hope is there for freedom of speech or privacy?"
D'coda Dcoda

Internet security: cookie monster unleashed following EU ruling [28May11] - 0 views

  • Warning notices at the top of websites, annoying pop-up windows, forms asking for your consent ... fears have been voiced that browsing the web could become more complicated and time-consuming as a result of "challenging" new EU rules on internet cookies.They are small text files put on to our computers by websites so they can remember things about us, and almost every site uses them.But at one minute past midnight on Thursday 26 May, the law surrounding the way they are used changed.
  • From that date, all UK businesses and organisations running websites in this country were required to obtain people's consent before they install cookies on their machines.Some experts have said that where the new rules could have a big impact is if people are looking at lots of different sites they have no relationship with. For example, you might be browsing a dozen online retailers looking for the best price on an item. The worst-case scenario is that every time you visit a new site, you face a pop-up window, a "splash page" (which comes up before the home page) or a bar at the top, informing you about how cookies are used on the site, and asking for your consent.
Dan R.D.

Don't Buy a Dual-Core Tablet Until You See This Video [29May11] - 0 views

  • The first dual-core Android tablets only arrived in February, but Nvidia is already showing off an improved quad-core chip that’s expected to power tablets by August. The system-on-a-chip, codenamed “Kal-El,” has four computer cores and a dozen graphics processors that will offer a huge performance boost in mobile devices. Nvidia announced the chip in February, with support for 1440p video playback, which is higher than most HDTV sets.
  • Kal-El should bring faster device response times, vastly improved graphics, quicker camera applications and more. But perhaps the chip is too impressive when it comes to product timing.
  • the first dual-core tablets launched in February and slates using this new quad-core chip could be available by August, that means the very young Google Honeycomb tablet market is essentially running through a product cycle in six short months
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  • Nvidia expects handsets to run on Kal-El chips by this holiday season.
  • This year might be known as the year of dual-core chips, but if Nvidia has anything to say about it — not to mention competitors such as Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Marvell and others who are working on their own faster chips — 2012 is looking to be the year of quad-core devices.
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    http://diigo.com/0hk0y - I'm going to wait for a Kal-El device.
Dan R.D.

Google Vies With Microsoft for Runner-Up to Apple's iPad [30May11] - 0 views

  • Computex trade show in Taipei.
  • “Investors want to know which tablet is better, which has the best price-performance, and when the non-iPad camp is going to get going,” said Angela Hsiang, an analyst at KGI Securities Co. in Taipei. “Previously, people couldn’t actually see the products. At Computex, we’ll be able to touch and use them.”
  • Global shipments of tablets will climb to 215 million units in 2015 from 17 million last year, Toni Sacconaghi, a New York- based analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., wrote in a May 26 report. Fifteen percent of all tablets will cannibalize the sale of consumer PCs, reducing computer-sales growth by 2 percent annually between 2010 and 2015, Sacconaghi wrote.
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  • Microsoft’s computer platform, isn’t compatible with ARM chips, which are used in tablets from Samsung Electronics Co. and Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc.
  • “ARM plus Microsoft will be a big development in the future, and if that’s a success then it’ll be big for the market,” said KGI’s Hsiang. “Windows 8 will also impact the market because many people can’t get used to Android while they’re familiar with Windows.”
  • “Most vendors still worry about quality and stability,” Chiang said. “At this moment, they choose Google because its cost is lower as the operating system is free, while Windows adds to the price.”
Dan R.D.

Startling Facts That Show How HUGE Indian Tech Is - 0 views

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    http://www.businessinsider.com/india-tech-facts-2011-5#-8 1,210,000,000 current populationmobile phone penetration is 50% higher than TVIndians in rural areas 742,500,000 72% of populationtwo-and-a-half times the population of USAmobile subscribers 791,000,000 67%growing by 20,000,000 ever month50% of indians are 25 yrs or belowIndian mobile subscribers 791 million vs TV 520 millionnumber of SMSs sent via India's airtel network 90 billion10 billion mobile ads sent each monthestimated value of Indian mobile value-added services 2011 = 2011 US 3.5 billion100,000,000 internet users in India 8% populationgrew by 25% in the past 12 monthsaverage Indian web users spends 26 min online each day60% of Indian web users access via internet cafes31% of Indias rural population is unaware of the internet's existence.estimated value of eCommerce in India 2011: US $10 billion18% of India's rural Internet users travel more than 10km to access the internettop reasons rural Indians are adopting the internet: entertainmentestimated value of eCommerce in India in 2011: US $10 billionthe value of Indian eCommerce grow by more than 60% in 2010number of social media users in India: 33,158,000 - that's 2% of India's populationIndian web users spend 3 hours per month on social sites96% of Indian IT firms forbid social media use at work
Dan R.D.

Social media engagement huge in China - NevilleHobson.com - 0 views

  • I was especially interested in commentary on the Chinese market by Robin Goad, Hitwise UK’s research director, who adds some sharp focus on the huge growth in micro-blogging in China – and the tool of choice isn’t Twitter: [...] Chinese Internet users are primarily interested in micro-blogging when it comes to social media.  Sina Micro blog (China’s alternative to Twitter) accounted for 1 in every 158 Internet visits in China for April 2011. This makes China one of the most voracious micro-blogging nations worldwide, with a greater market share of visits going to micro-blogging sites in China than in the UK, US, France, Canada, Australia or India. Twitter is by far the most dominant micro-blogging platform in the UK and US, but Twitter accounted for 1 in every 250 visits online in the UK and 1 in every 555 in the US during April 2011, much lower than Sina Micro’s dominance of the online market in China. What’s more, this data doesn’t take into account mobile or 3rd party applications, so the actual usage of micro-blogging in China is likely much higher than our statistics suggest. The metrics Robin posted underline the sheer scale of what’s happening in China in terms of connecting people. Add that info to other metrics such as Royal Pingdom’s The incredible growth of the Internet since 2000. It shows China as clearly the top country on the internet with 420 million users (compared to 22.5 million in 2000).
Dan R.D.

Metaio and Layar pinpoint next steps for augmented reality [17May11] - 0 views

  • Metaio thinks that tablets will become increasingly important devices for AR, describing them as "the perfect enabler for augmented reality" as it published a video showcasing its Junaio AR technology running on slate devices.
  • Metaio's bullishness is about more than just the iPad: the company thinks the new wave of tablets running Google's Android 3.0 operating system – starting with the Motorola Xoom – will create new opportunities for innovative AR applications.
  • It also cites dual-core processors as a key factor enabling tablets to be used for AR applications including instructional guides; product information; e-commerce; entertainment and gaming
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  • Metaio's view is that AR is "more than a marketing gimmick or hype, it's actually an interface revolution". However, there are currently relatively few companies able to take part in this revolution, since creating AR content remains the preserve of developers willing and able to get to grips with the tools.
Dan R.D.

Philadelphia Department of Records and Azavea Release White Paper on Augmented Reality ... - 0 views

  • Azavea announced the publication of a free white paper that summarizes their research on the use of mobile augmented reality techniques for enhancing digital access to historical and cultural resources
  • the Philadelphia Department of Records was awarded an NEH Digital Humanities Start-Up Grant to develop innovative techniques for leveraging the sensors in contemporary smart phones to expand public access to historical data in novel ways. 
  • The new Augmented Reality by PhillyHistory.org application provides point-and-view access to 500 historic photographs of selected sites around Philadelphia.  Users are able to automatically access and view the historic photographs by simply pointing the camera of a smart phone at the contemporary site and selecting an available image.  The historic photos then appear as an overlay on the current urban landscape, enabling viewers to compare the past to the present.
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  • With support from the NEH Digital Humanities Start-Up Grant, the DOR and Azavea’s software engineering team were tasked with exploring these questions and publishing a white paper to present the findings of this research.  The white paper is free to download at http://www.azavea.com/augmented-reality
  • While the $50,000 research grant has yielded a more complete application than originally anticipated, the project team encountered a number of limitations with the current state of the technology.
  • The Department of Records and Azavea expect to seek additional funding in order to develop solutions for these limitations as well as bring the technology to a broader array of devices including tablets.
Dan R.D.

Revealing how People Live by Visualizing a Week of FourSquare Data [20May11] - 0 views

  • A Week on FourSquare [wsj.com] by the Wall Street Journal deciphers the worldwide data behind the emerging location-sharing service Foursquare for the week in January 2011. The different visualizations available include an obvious heatmap of San Francisco showing where the most 'check-ins' occurred, a list revealing the distribution of the most popular venues world-wide, a line graph contrasting the differences between men and women in terms of their most preferred locations, and a categorically ordered list of the most popular locations by their absolute check-in frequency. You can read the accompanying news article here.
Dan R.D.

Move over outsourcing! Indians are creating jobs for Americans!! [04Jan11] - 0 views

  • According to some interesting statistics, India has created more than 60,000 jobs with an investment of US $26.5 billion in the US over the past 5 years. This involves investments of US $21 billion by 239 Indian companies and 127 greenfield investments worth US $5.5 billion. The top three states for investments include Ohio, California and Texas. Investments have taken place in sectors like IT / ITes, biotech, chemicals, automotive, telecom etc. Indian organizations are increasingly opening up units in the US and also providing large scale employment opportunities in USA giving rise to a strong reverse outsourcing trend.
  • India has emerged as one of the largest FDI players in the US after the United Arab Emirates
  • The recent US $10 billion export deals worth for the US employers like Boeing signed by Obama with many Indian leaders is expected to create more than 50,000 jobs in Seattle.
Dan R.D.

Telco 2.0: Telco 2.0 News Review - 0 views

  • IDC’s Q1 scorecard for smartphones in western Europe is out. Nokia’s sales are sliding 10% year-on-year in a market for all phones growing at 5%, while the smartphone sector grew 76% (how long before we stop using the word smartphone, you might well ask). Nokia’s smartphone market share has gone from 57% to 19.6% in two years. Europe’s biggest handset maker is now Samsung and the fastest growing is HTC. The biggest platform is Android, with 35.7%, followed by Apple iOS on 20%, and then Symbian and BlackBerry OS.
  • 4 out of those 5 companies are heavily committed to Android, and two are also committed to Windows Phone,
  • In the Android sphere, Sony Ericsson has announced the latest lot of Xperia phones. They’re keeping the Xperia Mini brand from the hit X10, and the Mini Pro gets a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Both run Android 2.3/Gingerbread and get a new Facebook app.
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  • Android Market is up to 295,000 apps, with 64% being free.
Dan R.D.

Imaginary Phone Concept Takes The Screen Out Of Touchscreen [28May11] - 0 views

  • Researchers Sean Gustafson, Christian Holz and Patrick Baudisch of the Hasso-Plattner Institute have created a working prototype of a touch interface
  • A wearable depth camera tracks the user's movements on the surface of the palm of his or hand, corresponding to specific commands for an iPhone or other touchscreen phone, such as sliding to unlock and time settings.
  • Imaginary Phone allows users to control their mobile devices without taking it out of their pocket. Instead, users mimic the interaction on the palm of their hand. The interaction is tracked by a wearable depth camera which sends input events to the actual physical device. By mimicking the layout of the physical device, here an iPhone, users can operate the device based on spatial memory built up while using the physical device.
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  • More info at http://www.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/baudisch/projects/imaginary_phone.html
Dan R.D.

NFC System to Aid Diners [28Mar11] - 0 views

  • May 24, 2011—CustomerIn Systems, a Canadian software-development firm located in Vancouver, B.C., is providing Near Field Communication (NFC) solutions for restaurants, bars and other entertainment establishments.
  • The first of what the company hopes will be many NFC solutions is a restaurant application dubbed the Connected Restaurant. This application, which has been deployed and tested, allows diners to use their mobile phones to request a table, order a drink and receive other services via their NFC-enabled phones.
  • known as SimpleNFC.com will provide developers with application software to build their own NFC solutions, and enable them to purchase software kits and tags.
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  • A customer arriving at a participating restaurant—one with a CustomerIn application and NFC tags installed in its business—could check in by tapping his or her NFC phone against a tag affixed at the front desk. Once the patron taps the phone, it sends the tag's ID number to a CustomerIn server via a cellular link. By using the Connected Restaurant application loaded onto the phone, that individual can then select prompts to request a table.
Dan R.D.

ePayments Week - Mobile payments target the point-of-sale [26May11] - 0 views

  • Bling's system, you may remember, worked by attaching an NFC-enabled sticker on the back of phones. Users could then tap the phone onto specialized hardware (the Blinger) at the register and Bling could debit the user's PayPal account to pay the merchant.
  • Unless you have a Sprint Nexus S 4G on Sprint, you'll be attaching an RFID tag onto the back of your phone if you want to try out Google Wallet this summer. Google Wallet is an Android app, so presumably even though the RFID hardware is a sticker, the system won't work on any non-Android phones. Even so, Google should be applauded for getting its program rolling without having to wait on the handset makers.
  • Ryan Kim on GigaOm has a good write-up detailing Google's partners in the effort and the likely gains to NFC as the dominant mobile payment platform.
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  • Google plans to bring its own Groupon-like daily offer to a wide audience after its current trial in Portland, Ore., and it will integrate those discounts and others into the tap-and-pay scheme where that works.
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