Anything and everything tech related – with an extra helping of VoIP
Lauren Rosenberg was going for a walk and used Google Map directions to give her a route. Unfortunately for Lauren, Deer Valley Drive, also known as Utah State Route 224, was part of the route.
While walking on Deer Valley Drive she was hit by a car. She is suing Google for $100,000.
I hope she is alright but if she wins the suit the judge should make use the money for common sense classes.
I wonder how much work a carrier does to an operating system before they release it to their handsets. You read about some handsets just getting Android 2.1 when 2.2 is already released. I would think that Google would make it easy for the carriers to tweak what they want, disable this, disable something else, disable another useful thing, etc.
Now that Android is a ‘standard’ with regular feature releases people are going to learn how much carriers cripple the software on phones…..Android on Sprint can do AB&C, while on Verizon it can only do XY&Z.
Carriers that are quick to release the newest software will come out on top. People will have two criteria for making a decision on a mobile phone, the hardware and the version of software it is running; why by great hardware that has to year old software?
What, really?
“Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket effectively scared an entire generation away from boot camp. However, a new tactic being considered by the US Navy may completely change our perception of boot camp: video games. In the latest issue of Navy Times, Navy Surgeon General Vice Admiral Adam Robinson (he does sound important) suggested that games like Wii Fit and Dance Dance Revolution could help “newcomers to the military service build up the endurance they need to get in shape safely.”
According to the report, today’s recruit requires much more work to get into “fighting shape” than in the past. With America’s youth becoming increasingly sedentary, the US Navy has observed an increasing number of injuries suffered during boot camp. Recruits are “not used to the amount of standing and running that comes in recruit training,” the report indicates. Games would theoretically provide a more approachable, familiar solution for physical activity.
However, don’t expect games to completely replace current recruit training techniques. The US Navy is simply looking into the possibility of augmenting its current regimen with fitness games. Additionally, there’s no timetable in place for when games would be introduced into the military. Still, we’re eager to see if the boot camps of the future will look less like the one in Kubrick’s war movie and more like … this.”
From joystiq.com
Netflix now supports the streaming of some videos in HD. The HD picture is very impressive, it is steps above a DVD in terms of quality. I was able to go full screen on my 24 inch monitor with very little artifacting.
Above is a capture of the HD stream of Lost.
When you start playing the movie, it is in standard mode and it started buffering the HD stream. It takes about 10 seconds to switch to the HD signal on my 5Mb download internet connection. There appears to be an intermediate step between standard mode and HD, the picture gets progressively better until the HD starts.
When ever you move the ‘play head’ on the time line you need to buffer the stream again. For some reason this happens even if you go forward to something that has already been buffered or when you go back 10 seconds. This is an area that could use improvement.
If you see this “Format: DVD, Blu-ray and streaming (HD available)” you know that the selection can be viewed in HD. I have not found a way to get a list of selections that can be streamed in HD. This could be because I do not pay for Blu-ray disks.
The Netflix HD streaming picture quality is excellent and I am sure they will be adding more and more streaming HD capable titles.
Sean Fox has a great article about video phone sales should increase rapidly in the next two years. From dropping costs, increased functionality, to lower bandwidth needs video calling is becoming a reality.
In my opinion the question will become, ‘Do I need a dedicated piece of equipment for video calling?’ We are seeing new televisions with Ethernet ports, Wifi, Skype clients and HD cameras built into the set. Every new laptop, even $299 net books, have a camera built in and can do high quality video calling.
Why would someone pay $200 for something that is already in their TV. I remember the first time I saw a TV/VCR combo, it didn’t make sense because VCR technology was advancing so fast, you couldn’t upgrade the VCR.
Here are some of the things I think TV’s of the future will be able to do:
All of these options will be integrated into the system seamlessly.
I always thought this is what products like the AppleTV would become. If the past has taught us anything, it is that things get smaller and two devices that work together become one.
Here is the link to Sean’s post.
Dell has introduced the ‘Streak’, it is a 5-inch tablet. It looks very nice, not sure about the form factor. It is larger than a smart phone and smaller than a tablet, is there a need for a device in that space?
It seems too big to hold against your head as a phone, a headset with Skype would be a nice addition.
Here are some of the specs:
You can read more about the device here
“The Senate passed legislation Monday that would make it easier for federal workers to work from home.”
“This winter’s snowstorms highlighted the need to develop flexible work arrangements to make sure the government can function during disruptive events,” Akaka said.
This is great news for Federal workers. We don’t have to worry about snowstorms but we do have tsunamis!
Read more here
As someone that uses GPS all the time this is great news.
“Despite fears last year that the Air Force wouldn’t be able to afford many more GPS satellites, a massive $8bn upgrade is being planned for overhauling the satellites, replacing each of the 24 satellites over the next decade.”
Read the rest here
One billion users sounds like a bit much. The back end database for that many users would rival Google.
“Skype Technologies SA, the largest provider of international calling, said the number of registered users will nearly double to 1 billion by 2015.
Half of Skype’s registered users by that time will be business customers, who bring in 20 percent to 30 percent more revenue on average than consumers, said David Gurle, a Skype vice president.”
Read the rest here
In case you can’t wait, here is the end of the review:
“Let us be crystal clear: we love this phone. Nay, we adore it. But the fact remains that it’s still very much an Android device — which means that if you don’t like Android now, odds are good that even Android executed on the most amazing hardware to date won’t do much to change your opinion of it. You’ve also got to be concerned about upgradeability; Froyo is almost certainly around the corner now, and HTC hasn’t done anything to suggest it’s able to push Sense-powered updates in a timely fashion.
That said, this is truly one of the best smartphones ever made, and even spotty 4G — a reality of a young technology that’s going to take years to properly build out — probably won’t do much to hamper your enjoyment of this thing. It’s reasonable to assume that phones like the EVO will ultimately come to every carrier over the next few months… but hey, if you jumped ship for Sprint to pick up this monster, we wouldn’t be able blame you.”
You can read the entire review here
Makai Communications
