Technology at Play

"WHEN The New Yorker magazine put out its first June issue this year, the cover art made headlines. It was a dreamy, late-night scene of a hotdog stand in New York by artist Jorge Colombo created using, of all things, an iPhone app. Traditionally, computers and artists have made uneasy bedfellows, so why did this image succeed? The iPhone's touch screen is the key, says Cathy Treadaway of the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, in the UK, as it taps into artists' desire to use their hands to express themselves. "One of the things artists try and do when they make an artwork is communicate a bit of themselves, their emotional content, if you like," says Treadaway. And hands are a formidable outlet for this. "Our hands are a channel into the body and out into the world. That's the way we are built, the way we are wired." Treadaway's own work has shown that traditional computer software and interfaces, such as the mouse and keyboard, hinder artists, as they demand attention to... more... - RAPatton from Bookmarklet

"Keefe has been working on a project called Drawing on Air, in which the artist works in a 3D virtual environment, holding a haptic device, called the Phantom, in one hand and wearing a glove connected to a computer in the other (see photo). The image is created using the "tape drawing" technique, commonly used in car design, in which both hands are used to draw lines. One hand... more... - RAPatton

"The Golden Buddha Phone has all the features of ordinary top-of-the-line cells, but also offers a virtual prayer room where users can pray to Buddha and various Bodhisattva. This techno-jewel sports a piece of real jade, pearl powder lacquer and a 24 karat gold paint-job that make it the most expensive cell-phone in China, at $1,750." - Jackie from Bookmarklet

"A recent study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration finds that hybrid vehicles are more likely to be involved in accidents with pedestrians and bicyclists under certain scenarios. According to state-level accident data, 77 of 8,387 hybrid vehicles (that's .9 percent) were involved in crashes with pedestrians and 48 (.6 percent) were found to have been in accidents with bicyclists." - imabonehead from Bookmarklet

"Israel is working on a warning system that will calculate the precise location of where a rocket will hit and alert residents in the area using cell phones, a newspaper reported on Sunday. "The rocket sensor will create a virtual ellipse (of the predicted impact zone) and all phones in that area will receive a warning," the Jerusalem Post quoted Chilik Soffer, a senior official at the Israeli Home Front Command, as saying. "We will use communications technology to send the signals and we are now working with the communications ministry to make the alert available," he said. The alert will come in as a vibration, audio alert, light flash or text message, he added. The aim is to make more specific the air raid systems that Israel currently has in communities near the border with Lebanon and Gaza, which have in the past come under regular rocket fire from Hezbollah and Palestinian militant groups." - RAPatton from Bookmarklet

"Got a tablet, or want to get one, but not sure it’s going to work out in Linux? Here’s how my Thinkpad x61’s built-in Wacom tablet works in Fedora 12 Beta..." - imabonehead from Bookmarklet

"She glides silently through the cobalt water, banking gently to the left so smoothly the movement is barely discernible. Seconds later, with pinpoint precision, we swoop down to chase a school of fish confused at the sight of this strange new creature of the deep. My cockpit headset crackles into life: 'Now, brace yourself for the porpoise,' says Captain Alfred McLaren, the excitement palpable in his voice. As the joystick is thrust backwards sharply, the world's first underwater 'flying' machine shoots upwards, breaching the water surface nose-first, before splashing back down and descending once more to the depths. The Super Aviator, a revolutionary submersible, could be considered the ultimate boy's toy. Sleek and oozing more sex appeal than your average fighter jet, the 22ft long futuristic sub has already seduced billionaires such as Roman Abramovich and Richard Branson. They've both made enquiries about buying one of the £1.5 million machines. But this is far more than a rich... more... - RAPatton

"The Nook does have some nice incremental improvements over the Kindle: two screens, the familiar e-ink black-and-white reader screen that dominates the device's surface, a smaller horizontal color LCD at the bottom of the device used for navigation, typing on a virtual keyboard, and so on. It also has built-in Wi-Fi, a replaceable battery, and an SD slot, all of which are missing from Amazon's Kindle. The Nook matches the Kindle's lower $259 price, effectively forcing Amazon to drop the price of its global Kindle by $20. It's clear that Amazon is paying attention to what Barnes & Noble is doing. It won't cede any ground it doesn't have to." - imabonehead from Bookmarklet

I wanted to buy it but when realized that barnes and noble doesnt sell eBooks to Russia bought Sony PRS-600 - Kaspar Minosiants

"If you've ever wondered what's inside Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks, you've got six years to take a look. Milan, where the original Renaissance man worked for years, has brought the largest collection of his drawings and writings, the 1,000-plus-page Codex Atlanticus, to the masses. The Codex is normally housed in the city's Biblioteca Ambrosiana, where it is off-limits even to most scholars. But until 2015, visitors can view a rotating exhibition of selected pages from the real da Vinci code, grouped into themes including mechanical flight, anatomy and war machines. Among the pages, dating from 1478 to 1519, visitors will find engineering designs, recipes, doodles from apprentices, as well as sketches for da Vinci's many ahead-of-his-time contraptions. Da Vinci, who reportedly made sketches of his observations on loose sheets or on tiny pads he kept in his belt, left behind the largest literary legacy of any painter. "It can be a little embarrassing, when people only expect to see... more... - RAPatton

hmm, disappointed that I can't get the zoomed images when browsing the ambrosiana pages. - Greg GuitarBuster

"Men have become so openly affectionate with each other using mobile technology they've taken to signing off text messages to male friends with a kiss (x), giving rise to a new generation dubbed "Metrotextuals." New research from mobile phone firm T-Mobile reveals nearly a quarter of men (22 per cent) regularly include a kiss on texts to their male mates, T-Mobile said in an emailed statement. "Metrotextuality" is most widespread among 18-24 year old males with three quarters (75 per cent) regularly sealing texts with a kiss and 48 per cent admitting that the practice has become commonplace amongst their group of friends. Nearly a quarter of this age group (23 per cent) even appreciate an "x' in a text exchange from people that aren't close friends. But it's not just younger men that have become Metrotextuals -- one in 10 men over 55 often completes a text to another male with a kiss, according to the poll. The research also revealed there's a certain etiquette within metrotextuality.... more... - RAPatton from Bookmarklet

:) Derrick - VAL D.

"PS3 Video 9 is a free video conversion application developed by Red Kawa. It allows you to convert your computer video files (like avi, divx, mpeg, etc.) into the specific video formats that are playable on the PlayStation 3. It is available for Windows and Mac." - Amani from Bookmarklet

David - Do I download this on the PS3 or on my MAC? Does it matter if I have a NAS? - Amani

"To mark the 40th anniversary of the Internet, DARPA has announced the DARPA Network Challenge, a competition that will explore the roles the Internet and social networking play in the timely communication, wide-area team-building, and urgent mobilization required to solve broad-scope, time-critical problems. The challenge is to be the first to submit the locations of 10 moored, 8-foot, red, weather balloons at 10 fixed locations in the continental United States. The balloons will be in readily accessible locations and visible from nearby roads." - Annie Ok from Bookmarklet

"Sony Ericsson’s first two smartphones from the Xperia series, although packing some powerful hardware, were not what we’ve hoped they will be, and I dare say it’s due to one reason only: they were based on Windows Mobile OS. Third time’s the charm, they say, and it just might be the case with the latest device from the series, Xperia X10. Today, Sony Ericsson released official specifications and photos of the final product; judging from those, it might be the Android (Android) device that’ll give iPhone and Nokia a run for their money." - Amani from Bookmarklet

""If nothing else, Übercaster is going to win the award for the coolest name in software." (PodcastingTricks)" - Amani from Bookmarklet

Need to reach Bwana. Have an email for him. I need to ask him this question. - Amani

"The OWLE (Optical Widget for Life Enhancement) Bubo is a camera mount; stabilizer, repositioned microphone, and 37 mm wide-angle lens built for the iPhone 3GS that improves the quality of mobile video. The simplest and yet most effective feature of the OWLE is that it's built for to be held just like a standard camera. Taking photo's and video is as much about the device as it is the subject. The OWLE give you the feeling that you can shoot any scene or cover any story with confidence. The OWLE Bubo constructed of anodized billet aluminum and is basically indestructible. The Bubo is being introduced at a special price of $99.95 (MSRP $129.95) and will include a high quality Vericorder microphone, an aluminum .45x wide-angle/macro combo lens, a rubber iPhone case and an instruction booklet with recommended apps. This discount will be extended to all of our customers for as long as possible. We feel that is very important everyone has the ability to get the benefits of an OWLE for... more... - RAPatton

++ JA - LogEx

"Users of the comiXology, Panelfly and iVerse digital comics applications on the iPhone can now download and read titles from Marvel Comics. It looks like as of midnight Eastern time all three sites posted updates and added Marvel to their libraries. Here's a breakdown of what each app is offering: Panelfly Amazing Spider-Man #1-25 Amazing Spider-Man #519-523 Astonishing X-Men #1-24 Invincible Iron Man #1-16 X-23 #1-6 X-Men: Age Of Apocalypse #1-6 ... iVerse and comiXology are offering Marvel's comics for $1.99. Panelfly has them for $.99 each for the first few issues, then $1.99 for later ones. " - RAPatton from Bookmarklet

Whose bright idea it was to not make a decent amount of internal memory a REQUIREMENT, I'll never know. It's difficult to reverse something like this, because you will have so many phones going out that don't have the storage, developers can't rely on users having it... you know how many (US) PS2 games fully made use of the addon hard drive.. 1. They didn't, because they couldn't rely... more... - Tim Hoeck

ew - Holden Page