We’ve once wondered if this whole field of mobile experience design got invented originally by frustrated Europeans as a work-around to the UI limitations of nokia smart phones. You see, back in the olden days (like 24 months ago), it was the mighty nokia that ruled the global smartphone market. Nokia n-series phones had by far the most features (wifi, 3g, storage) and the best cameras and video cameras etc. But still, hobbled as they were by 9 digit keypads and a notionally open, but still crufty, symbian OS, of that good stuff was sometimes hard to make the...
Since hearing about Nokia's foray into the world of home automation, our curiosity has been seriously piqued. Thankfully, our girl-on-the-scene Drita has captured video of the new software / hardware combo in action on the Nokia World show floor. It looks like a fully decked out system is going to run you a hefty fee (given all the components required), but can you put a price on the extreme laziness it will enable? We didn't think so. Check out the thrilling video out after the break!Gallery: Nokia's Z-Wave Home Control Center hands-on and videoContinue reading Nokia's Z-Wave Home Control...
In lieu of a stand-alone review of all of the pod coffee makers I’ve been reviewing this year I’m going to offer a quick head to head of the two major competing systems in the U.S., Tassimo and Nespresso, and allow you, the reader, to make up your own mind. Coffee, in the end, is very subjective. I began my foray into pod or Single Serving Coffee coffee makers a few months ago with the Tassimo maker by Braun. The maker was amazingly simple to use - just pop in the pod, wait a minute, and press the button....
We've covered the Telenav Shotgun and how we like it. The GPS with connections is the first foray of the Telenav folks into the hardware realm and the Shotgun is a decent offering. Those connections mean the Shotgun will check continuously while you are driving and warn you of any traffic situations that will affect your trip. The connectivity means you have to sign up for the Telenav service which normally costs you from $11.99 a month to $239 for two years. The Shotgun normally comes with the first 3 months of service free but today only, and you'd...
Filed under: Blu-ray Not like we haven't heard about these much anticipated features already, but it's always refreshing to get it straight from the horse's mouth. Or Warner Home Video's mouth, in this case. The Dark Knight marks the studio's very first foray into the controversial world of BD-Live, and what's apt to be the best selling BD of the year will pack quite the interactive punch. Owners with Profile 2.0 players will be able to "host their own Live Community Screenings with friends, record and post user-generated commentaries over the film using My WB Commentary, access more The Dark...
Welcome to the first episode of an irregular series of posts that will survey science fiction novels published from the beginning of the 20th century until shortly before the advent of science fiction's so-called Golden Age. Not to be confused with SF's Pulp Era (i.e., the mid-1920s through the mid-1950s), I've named the years 1904-33 its Pre-Golden Age, or PGA. For our first foray into this era, let's consider ten great novels of the apocalypse written between 1904 and 1933. Hold on, though: The 20th century began in 1901, while the Golden Age is widely agreed to have kicked...
The Storm is BlackBerry's much-heralded first foray into touchscreen smartphones. When it hit the market earlier this week, it entered a field of touchscreen phones like the T-Mobile G1 and the gold standard Apple iPhone. It was developed by Canada's Research in Motion and represents a clear challenge to Apple's supremacy. We've been toying with a review unit for a week, and have noted a few clear-cut advantages. The Storm boasts a respectable 3.2 megapixel camera with LED flash, a standard 3.5mm headphone jack and intuitive functions like cut-and-paste. But the most high profile feature on the Storm, is...
Last February when Microsoft announced it had purchased Danger, makers of T-Mobile’s consumer friendly smartphone the Sidekick, I suggested that rumors of a Zune-branded phone would quickly resurface. Today, CNBC’s Jim Goldman claims that a new device from Microsoft, codenamed ‘pink’, is indeed in the works and that it will combine the company’s Zune with technology from Danger, with an end goal to develop a viable competitor to Apple’s iPhone. All of which seems perfectly plausible. Both the Zune and Danger teams fall under the company’s Entertainment and Devices Division, which also overseas the XBox 360 — Microsoft’s most successful...
2009 is approaching quickly, and the consensus is that it's going to be a really tough year. The US financial crisis is triggering a global recession. Yet, a crisis is also a time full of hope. It is a time to re-think, re-tool, and get ready for the next upswing. For big Internet companies, 2009 is going to be a very bad year for sure. Advertising profits are going to plunge, and consumers will spend less money overall, particularly on the web. There is little that can be done to change that. But what big companies can do is invest...
For the past few months Google has been filling ad inventory on Facebook applications and according to individuals on the team behind the ad sales, things have been going well. When Facebook launched their platform last year, a whole slew of new startups emerged around the social advertising space. Companies like SocialMedia, Cubics (later acquired by Adknowledge), AdParlor.com, Lookery, and others each fought for a piece of the social advertising pie. Small startups are rapidly finding that it’s not a good place to play though. Scott Rafer of Lookery says that they sold their ad network “specifically because the social...
Update on the Kindle 2: It was scheduled to be released in October in time for this holiday season, but Bezos himself reportedly pulled the plug for last minute changes to the software. Our sources now say it’s tentatively scheduled to go on sale in “early next quarter.” The images that surfaced of the new Kindle in October are real - it’s a longer device but not as thick as the original Kindle, and fixes some of the button issues that plague users (like accidental page turns). A larger-screen student version is still scheduled for the first half of 2009....
Photograph by EssG on Flickr From the Gothamist Newsmap: Person in the water at East River Drive in Manhattan, a "third-armed robbery" at Francis Lewis Blvd & 56 Ave in Queens, and an all hands on St Johns Place in Brooklyn. A woman who died of stab wounds was pulled from an apartment fire on Staten Island. Mel Brooks' second Broadway foray--Young Frankenstein--is closing on January 4 after 484 performances. Producer F.X. Sillman attributed the decision to "these uncertain economic times." Sloppy Democrats may help Al Franken's Senate bid. Midtown Lunch is dared to eat a sandwich from the...
Visit any Dunkin’ Donuts store nowadays and you’ll see signs that say something about how, in a blind taste test, people preferred the company’s coffee to Starbucks’. Yes, fine, the coffee is good, but have you tried the donuts? My God, are they delicious. I know it’s not “cool” to gorge on fried dough anymore, but try a plain stick, a glazed stick, and a chocolate glazed stick the next time you’re near a store. After a failed first try stemming all the way back to 1994, Dunkin’ Donuts is attempting to re-enter the Chinese market, according to the...
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