I don't usually get worked up about non-Mac related technologies, but the two that have been announced this week are pretty cool.
The first is the Firefox plugin called Ubiquity. Its basically a command line interface for doing all sorts of cool things. I like this a lot and wish that it was available for Safari... :)
Here's the link to the announcement and a cool video showing how it can work.
Ubiquity
And the second thing, shock of all shocks, comes out of Microsoft...
Its called Photosynth. It is a technology that builds 3d models from 2D pictures by tracking points. We use the same technology at our company for video processing, but the UI for this on the microsoft site is tremendous.
You'll need to download a plug in player to view the results, but its pretty cool. Again, this won't work on a Mac, but at least Microsoft admits that they aren't cool enough with their message
The link is
Photosynth
They talked about it at TED a couple of years ago, so here's the talk so that you can enjoy it without downloading. It is based on a technology called Seadragon.. That name rules.... The newspaper piece is wonderful
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
The new iPhone 3G
Yes, I got one... I got the last one in the store on Sunday and was very happy with it until today. It's not all sunshine and roses, and as a bit of an Apple fanboy, that is a little disappointing.
The new software is great. The app store has some fantastic stuff on it, including Things, my favorite GTD app which I can't live without at this point. I did download some dorky stuff too, like iBeer... Just to pass the time.
But today, I activated my Exchange account in work and it wiped out all my personal contacts and calendar as I set them to Push mode. So it seems that you CANNOT have a personal calendar and personal contacts on one computer, and then activate Exchange for work. This is annoying as I have a personal address book and a non-work calendar in addition to my work stuff.
Not only that, but the sync also got the time zones messed up so it screwed up my master home calendar and dropped a couple of appointments, so I don't know what the hell is going on with that. I'll have to spend more time working on that tomorrow. I'm going to have to come up with some kind of a workaround. I really just wanted the exchange calendar to be an additional calendar on the device in the same way that the Entourage calendar is in iCal.
In addition, the battery life is REALLY bad when compared to the old one. I know the 3G kills the battery, but it should last longer than a half a day. I'm going to charge the hell out of it tonight and see how it does tomorrow.
Plus, the phone is wider and therefore, doesn't fit into the docking cradle of the old phone so you have to spend more money on a new one. Nickel and dimed....
So, for me, the upgrade to the new device is a bit of a frustrating experience. The exchange integration is VERY slick, but kills your personal stuff, which is NOT what I expected, but the app store is a wonderful source of great creativity and cool things to add to the phone.
I'll gripe more I'm sure as I try and get this calendar and contacts mess sorted out.
The new software is great. The app store has some fantastic stuff on it, including Things, my favorite GTD app which I can't live without at this point. I did download some dorky stuff too, like iBeer... Just to pass the time.
But today, I activated my Exchange account in work and it wiped out all my personal contacts and calendar as I set them to Push mode. So it seems that you CANNOT have a personal calendar and personal contacts on one computer, and then activate Exchange for work. This is annoying as I have a personal address book and a non-work calendar in addition to my work stuff.
Not only that, but the sync also got the time zones messed up so it screwed up my master home calendar and dropped a couple of appointments, so I don't know what the hell is going on with that. I'll have to spend more time working on that tomorrow. I'm going to have to come up with some kind of a workaround. I really just wanted the exchange calendar to be an additional calendar on the device in the same way that the Entourage calendar is in iCal.
In addition, the battery life is REALLY bad when compared to the old one. I know the 3G kills the battery, but it should last longer than a half a day. I'm going to charge the hell out of it tonight and see how it does tomorrow.
Plus, the phone is wider and therefore, doesn't fit into the docking cradle of the old phone so you have to spend more money on a new one. Nickel and dimed....
So, for me, the upgrade to the new device is a bit of a frustrating experience. The exchange integration is VERY slick, but kills your personal stuff, which is NOT what I expected, but the app store is a wonderful source of great creativity and cool things to add to the phone.
I'll gripe more I'm sure as I try and get this calendar and contacts mess sorted out.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
European Car Design
Another non-mobile related post, but with the lines so long outside the Apple Store, I can't really write about my new iPhone as I don't have one yet, so lets try something a little different
I was in the UK last week for the first time in nearly 3 years and I noticed a number of significant changes while I was there. Firstly, there were tall white elegant windmills dotted around the countryside and I thought they looked great. Wondering how long before they get across here.
Secondly, the weather. It rained the whole time I was there, but I won't bore you with that, but as my dad put it "How miserable is this?"
The third thing I noticed was the proliferation of small city cars. I'm a bit of car nut myself, but I was shocked at the numbers of these things running around (and having seen the price of petrol over there, it makes a lot of sense). The thing that struck me the most was how wonderfully designed they were. We now have the Smart car over here in the US, and there are a few of them running around, but I particularly liked the Citroen and Peugeot small cars. The C1 and C2 from Citroen are wonderful little things. The C1, the Peugeot 107 and a Toyota were all designed jointly, but its a great looking little car. Big wide mouth, cat looking headlights and very vertical rear on the car. It just looked great, and for the price, looks like a good deal. It makes the new Mini Cooper look very over priced.
Then there was the Renault Modus, the Peugeot 1007 with the sliding doors and my favorite of the lot, the new Fiat 500. What a little gem that is. The interior is a thing of beauty. I would love to see one of those on the road over here.
Its about time the US population realized that big cars are not required all the time and that these small city cars are the answer to the short to medium commute to work, where most people spend their time.
I was in the UK last week for the first time in nearly 3 years and I noticed a number of significant changes while I was there. Firstly, there were tall white elegant windmills dotted around the countryside and I thought they looked great. Wondering how long before they get across here.
Secondly, the weather. It rained the whole time I was there, but I won't bore you with that, but as my dad put it "How miserable is this?"
The third thing I noticed was the proliferation of small city cars. I'm a bit of car nut myself, but I was shocked at the numbers of these things running around (and having seen the price of petrol over there, it makes a lot of sense). The thing that struck me the most was how wonderfully designed they were. We now have the Smart car over here in the US, and there are a few of them running around, but I particularly liked the Citroen and Peugeot small cars. The C1 and C2 from Citroen are wonderful little things. The C1, the Peugeot 107 and a Toyota were all designed jointly, but its a great looking little car. Big wide mouth, cat looking headlights and very vertical rear on the car. It just looked great, and for the price, looks like a good deal. It makes the new Mini Cooper look very over priced.
Then there was the Renault Modus, the Peugeot 1007 with the sliding doors and my favorite of the lot, the new Fiat 500. What a little gem that is. The interior is a thing of beauty. I would love to see one of those on the road over here.
Its about time the US population realized that big cars are not required all the time and that these small city cars are the answer to the short to medium commute to work, where most people spend their time.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
iPhone Video Conferencing
One of the things rumored to be in the new 3G iPhone was a forward facing camera to allow video conferencing.
Alas, it was not to be, and we are left with the sub par camera that is already on the device.
A couple of days ago, I came across a posting on one of the many Mac rumor sites that I read ago that someone had found an entry in the QuickTIme files for an iSight HD camera. I bought the original iSight a long time ago (a beautifully designed slim aluminum tube that sat on top of your monitor) and was a little disappointed that they stopped selling it, but it got me to thinking about a potential solution for the iPhone web conference
If Apple release the new iSight HD with a compatible iPhone dock, you could have a portable iChat compliant web conferencing tool with significantly better video quality without the need to have a camera in the phone, especially if the dock had A/V output capability.
A portable video conferencing solution...
Probably never happen, but it makes you wonder how many crazy things are going to show up on the iPhone 3G when it eventually launches on July 11th
Alas, it was not to be, and we are left with the sub par camera that is already on the device.
A couple of days ago, I came across a posting on one of the many Mac rumor sites that I read ago that someone had found an entry in the QuickTIme files for an iSight HD camera. I bought the original iSight a long time ago (a beautifully designed slim aluminum tube that sat on top of your monitor) and was a little disappointed that they stopped selling it, but it got me to thinking about a potential solution for the iPhone web conference
If Apple release the new iSight HD with a compatible iPhone dock, you could have a portable iChat compliant web conferencing tool with significantly better video quality without the need to have a camera in the phone, especially if the dock had A/V output capability.
A portable video conferencing solution...
Probably never happen, but it makes you wonder how many crazy things are going to show up on the iPhone 3G when it eventually launches on July 11th
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Ahhh..iPhone with 3G
Finally....
This has been enormous news everywhere in this country, and I am sure its been mentioned a few times elsewhere too, but the new iPhone is coming in July. The 11th to be precise.
As a user of iPhone v1 (which I paid almost $600 for a year ago.... now worth about $100 on eBay if I'm lucky), I have to say that the new updated software looks fantastic, and MobileMe will help me out a lot as I have 3 computers that I am constantly trying to keep in sync. I can finally hand back my Windows Mobile brick to IT as I won't need it anymore.
The interesting thing for me on the phone is the GPS functionality. I was in the market for a GPS for the car, and now I don't need one. I can just use the phone. I'm wondering how long it will take for a car manufacturer to incorporate the iPhone into the screen of the car to replace having an in car system. People of Volkswagen..... I mean you. I can have GPS, iPhone and iPod all on the same screen, using a screen layout I am familiar with... Utopia, plus it would be cheaper for the car manufacturer as they wouldn't need the GPS stuff. Just a thought.
In addition to that, I've already seen some interesting news about location aware applications, such as Omnifocus for location aware To Do lists (at the grocery store, list all grocery items), and some of the games that were demo'd looked great. I think I was more impressed by the graphics than the actual games though... I think even though the screen and graphics are streets ahead of other mobile devices, what types of games are going to be the best sellers?
Location aware, community type games have a very interesting platform to come forward and fulfill the promise for the casual gamer. Poker with people in the same city. Meet fellow iPhone Facebook friends who are in the same city.... Interesting applications. I would like to see the phone itself make use of the GPS for things like Weather, Address Book. I land in a new City, weather defaults to new City, address book has a smart list of local contacts, things like that.
Needless to say, I don't really need one, but July 11th, I'll be in line with the rest of the mock turtle neck crew. 16Gb in White is the way to go. Anyone need a v1 phone 8Gb ??
This has been enormous news everywhere in this country, and I am sure its been mentioned a few times elsewhere too, but the new iPhone is coming in July. The 11th to be precise.
As a user of iPhone v1 (which I paid almost $600 for a year ago.... now worth about $100 on eBay if I'm lucky), I have to say that the new updated software looks fantastic, and MobileMe will help me out a lot as I have 3 computers that I am constantly trying to keep in sync. I can finally hand back my Windows Mobile brick to IT as I won't need it anymore.
The interesting thing for me on the phone is the GPS functionality. I was in the market for a GPS for the car, and now I don't need one. I can just use the phone. I'm wondering how long it will take for a car manufacturer to incorporate the iPhone into the screen of the car to replace having an in car system. People of Volkswagen..... I mean you. I can have GPS, iPhone and iPod all on the same screen, using a screen layout I am familiar with... Utopia, plus it would be cheaper for the car manufacturer as they wouldn't need the GPS stuff. Just a thought.
In addition to that, I've already seen some interesting news about location aware applications, such as Omnifocus for location aware To Do lists (at the grocery store, list all grocery items), and some of the games that were demo'd looked great. I think I was more impressed by the graphics than the actual games though... I think even though the screen and graphics are streets ahead of other mobile devices, what types of games are going to be the best sellers?
Location aware, community type games have a very interesting platform to come forward and fulfill the promise for the casual gamer. Poker with people in the same city. Meet fellow iPhone Facebook friends who are in the same city.... Interesting applications. I would like to see the phone itself make use of the GPS for things like Weather, Address Book. I land in a new City, weather defaults to new City, address book has a smart list of local contacts, things like that.
Needless to say, I don't really need one, but July 11th, I'll be in line with the rest of the mock turtle neck crew. 16Gb in White is the way to go. Anyone need a v1 phone 8Gb ??
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Another Italian Masterpiece
Another entrant in the world's most beautiful car contest. Announced today, the Ferrari California.
http://www.autoblog.com/photos/ferrari-california/802546/
Monday, May 12, 2008
My Daughter's Dance Recital
I know this is supposed to be a download of my thoughts, but my daughter had her first dance recital this weekend, and it was tremendous. She is the total ham with the blond hair. If you click through to YouTube, there is a higher quality version if you are interested.
Enjoy
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