YouTube has opened a new section of its site called Colleges on YouTube. Students, staff and alumni of 30 universities can access video from their school community by using a .edu email address and other users can’t access those pages. Users are encouraged to suggest that their school be added to the list. This strategy has clearly been successful for Facebook, probably the 2nd most recognized online social network in the US with separate sections for more than 2000 schools. Just like Facebook is moving away from its initially closed nature, though, it makes little sense to me to see YouTube launching private sections on what was initially a viral video site. A closed college section is to the rest of the site like a suburban gated community is to a hip downtown scene. I can’t help but think that a college section is appealing because it will keep out the freaks (and pirates) that make YouTube so lively. More Tea Partay, less 66Six. And thus more profitable advertising, in the short term at least. The theory is that walled gardens for colleges make relevant content easier for insiders to find and less likely to be viewed by outsiders. In reality though, alumni accounts and the basic portability of data on the web mean that it’s not very hard to access the content and posting Facebook profiles elsewhere on the web has become standard gossip blogger practice. A degree of privacy on Facebook may be an antiquated idea from the days when online social networks were new. The .edu email login may be little more than an inconvenience to casual contact and collaboration – anyone who really wants to can get into the system. Things are changing at Facebook – its recent API release indicates that in some ways the company wants now to take the lead in opening up. Creating closed sections of your site for large communities is not the direction the best of the web it going in. YouTube is known and loved not just as a site to upload videos, but as a place to find and spread video freely. Photosharing site Webshots demoted their College Live section from its own tab to a drop down menu item on the front page in this week’s redesign. Given that College Live rolled out in April, downplaying it in the end of August may indicate that it was → Read More
The test tube/rod/phallus-shaped Walkman NW-S200 from Sony comes complete with a strap on for your arm, allowing you to use it for exercise as well as entertainment. How does this help you exercise? Well, it’s got a Music Pacer feature that matches up the tunes with the pace of your run, a sweat and water resistant body, a shuffle song feature activated by shaking, and a built-in pedometer and calorie counter. If Sony can’t beat Apple on the music front, they’ll target this player towards athletes instead. The 1GB version will be $120 and the 2GB version will be $150 later this year. Press Release [Sony via Gizmodo via SCI FI Blog] → Read More
When I’m walking down the Magnificant Mile, and I’m looking for a good way to blow some time (which seems to be more and more often), I usually stop in at the Nokia flagship store and see what kind of new way-too-expensive-for-me phones they have to play with. There’s usually just about 30 of the underwhelming 8801, and a couple of the 7370 and 7380 for the ladies. Recently though, they started showing the N80 Smartphone. The little bit that I’ve played with it was enough to convince me that it can already compete with all of the other smartphones out there. But it looks like the Nokia folks have decided to upgrade it to a 2.1-inch screen, 352×416-pixel resolution screen, GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 MHz network running phone to utilize Wi-Fi, with support for third-party VoIP applications, Amazon shopper, Yahoo Go!, Mobipocket eBook reader and plenty more internet-ready goodies. The new version should be available in September. Nokia N80 Internet Edition arrives with Wi-Fi and Skype support[Infosyncworld via Gizmodo] → Read More
Forbes Magazine release today a list of the 30 most connected cities in the United States. They’ve surprisingly selected Atlanta as the most wired US city. I’m not really seeing it. Sure, as Forbes points out, the ATL is home to Bellsouth, Cox and Earthlink, and it might have more people with broadband per capita than any other city, but it just doesn’t feel right. I’m willing to bet that in reality, cities like San Fran, Seattle and NYC are more connected. Thoughts? America’s Most Wired Cities [Forbes] → Read More
The age of Aquarius is finally over and now it’s time for the age of ubiquitous wireless. Y-E Data Inc., a Japanese company, is launching one of the first wireless UWB hubs in the world that turns any formerly wired device into a wireless USB device. The hub has four standard USB ports and uses a dongle to connect to the hub. The estimated speed is about 100Mbps, which should fall considerably in real conditions. Maximum range is about 30 feet and they’re working on commercial availability here in the States. Be prepared for another format war as UWB fights ZigBee and Wireless USBM to the death in a huge, international wireless cage match. UWB Hub coming in October [NewLaunches] → Read More
It looks like the new Sirius Stiletto 100 receiver is ready for its close-up. If you’ll remember, it has the ability to keep up to 100 hours of music (MP3/WMAs), can stream your audio via WiFi connectivity and is, of course, also a Sirius receiver. Now we get to see it bumpin’ and grindin’ with the new Soloist speaker system from Directed Electronics. So get get your wallets ready, because she costs $399. Stiletto and Soloist-so happy together[Orbitcast via Engadget] → Read More
I have thus far let my perverse love of timepieces go unquenched on these pages, but no longer. Here is a fancy Dreamcast Watch that opens up just like the original Dreamcast to reveal the time. Practical? No. Geek-tastic? Yes. It’s available now for pre-order for $129 and will ship September 29. If it was every your goal to have a portable Dreamcast, this is probably about the closest you’ll ever get to it. Product Page [Play-Asia via WristWatchReview via Gizmodo] → Read More
Creative officially launched recently the Zen Vision W that we heard about last week. The new player features a high resolution 4.5-inch, 16:9 format, color widescreen TFT display. Aside from the screen though, this player is essentially identical to the older M model. The ZEN Vision W will be available in 30GB and in 60GB models. It will be showcased at COMDEX today and it is available in Singapore currently, with it expected to drop in the US in late September. I want one! Creative Introduces the ZEN Vision W → Read More
Tennessee-based company Tenvera has developed a relatively affordable way to put fiber in the home (FITH). The benefit of this is clear, as fiber to the home becomes more-and-more widespread, the shoddiness of your old indoor copper wiring will be more apparent than ever. Tenvera calls its new FITH product, “System 5″ and it is estimated to be available for roughly two to three percent of the total building cost of a structure. They will be demonstrating System 5 at CEDIA in September. Fiber in the home thanks to Tennessee’s Tenvera [Engadget] → Read More
While many of us try to take video and images with our cameraphones or webcams, the resulting footage is rarely usable and suffers from a great deal of anti-aliasing and generally messy pixels. MotionDSP has solved that problem by using special algorithms to “recreate” lost data in real time, thereby bringing almost useless low-light and compressed video into tight focus. TechCrunch talked to the folks over at MotionDSP and discovered that the process works best on smooth, non-jerky video but, as we can see above, the improvements are immense. The product started as a military research project at UC Santa Cruz but is now available for licensing. Startup Uses Military Tech to Fix Low Res Video [Techcrunch] → Read More
Philips announced this morning the addition of the Skype certified VOIP841 to its product line. We’ve already seen a couple of these new Skype devices, but the gravity of their introduction is only now becoming apparent. Like the USRobotics USR9631 that we saw yesterday, the VOIP841 can function completely autonomous of a computer. Users are able to sign up for Skype service directly from the handset, which means it doesn’t even require a computer for setup. Unlike the currently available WiFi enabled Skype phones, the VOIP841 functions over a 1.8GHz DECT frequency, making for a highly reliable signal. The phone can connect to both your Skype account and your existingland line. If users add a supplemental handset, the system is capable of simultaneously serving calls from Skype and from a land line. I guess these could be extremely useful for users who make a high quantity of international calls, but they don’t really seem cost effective for basic users. After the cost of broadband and the fees for Skype In and Out, this service would cost at least as much as regular service. I’m sure it’ll work fabulously though and I really do admire the progress Skype is making with Internet telephony. These next-gen Skype phones will be available this holiday season. Skype → Read More
, the M360 and the M160. NEC is promoting these as having the “perfect balance” between performance, flexibility and security, though I don’t see anything outstanding. They both have integrated biometric fingerprint scanners, but there’s nothing new there. The M360 has an optional port replicator with it’s own biometric scanner, but that seems rather redundant. The chassis of the M360 is being billed as “rugged”, which is something. Highly-configurable models, avoid the entry levels with their Celeron-based processors and opt for the Centrino Duo, and you’ve got a pretty decent bang for your buck, especially with the SXGA 15.4″ LCD, built-in wireless, and 5.5-pound weight. NEC laptops are nice, but are not the kind of things that gets us geeks drooling. For enterprise buyers looking to load up their workforce with fairly decent laptops, however, they’re an attractive way to go without having to shell out for bells and whistles that will never, or maybe should never, be used. Really cool? No. Will they get the job done? Sure. Pricing starts at less than $750. NEC Strengthens Secure Laptop Range [BIOS Magazine] → Read More
that if , in light of its recent successes, could HP be attaining Apple-like mojo? He makes a few very good points, and positions that against Apple’s rough month. It’s a well-thought, if not brief, read into how fortunes can change swiftly in this industry. With Apple’s battery recall, settlement with Creative Technologies and recent stock option irregularities, it would appear that Apple is in a rough spot. And with HP’s stock surging, and being on the right side of the government’s new policies on tech trash, it seems as likely as ever to seize the torch of indignant righteousness from Cupertino. Burrows is correct, however, to point out that this could also just be a seasonal irregularity for Apple. Let’s face it, HP makes calculators, Apple makes iPod. They simply don’t have the cult status that Apple does, but that’s OK. In the end, the companies are on different, but occasionally convergent, paths. HP CEO Mark Hurd is no Steve Jobs, but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have his mojo workin’. Is HP the Heir to Apple’s Halo? [Tech News World] → Read More
A selection of noteworthy news stories for your perusal: HORNMASSIVE Sound System Table of Free Voices Protect respect your disks with new DVD condoms Aiptek MyNote Digital Notepad ViewScore.com: Review Aggregator → Read More
Motion DSP is creating a simple web based interface that will significantly enhance low resolution camera phone video into surprisingly high quality stuff. It started off in 1998 as a U.S. military funded project at UC Santa Cruz. In January 2005, Professor Peyman Milanfar, the primary researcher behind the technology, co-founded Motion DSP. The company compares multiple frames in a video to find and replace lost pixels in a given frame, significantly enhancing the experience with little increase in overall file size after compression. The service works best when a video is not moving rapidly or in a jerking fashion, but tends to improve just about any low quality video. To see a demonstration, check out this page on the site that contains three different before and after video shots. The service will go into consumer beta sometime this year, CEO and co-founder Sean Varah told us. The service will be free and will allow users to upload a video and download an enhanced version. But he also stressed that the focus will be on getting deals done with the large online video sites, such as YouTube, to enhance user-uploaded videos. Motion DSP is headquartered in San Mateo, California and outsource large parts of software development to Serbia. They’ve raised a $500,000 angel round and are currently pitching a Series A round of financing. → Read More
Faces.com is a social networking site from Australia with an emphasis on multimedia sharing. The site has been up for several years but has recently undergone a relaunch. Faces allows users to create their own site (like Myspace) or “widgetize” the data (photos, music, etc.) for placement on other sites. Uploaded audio files are placed in playlists called TuneFeeds that can be shared with others or played in your profile page. There’s a browser toolbar for adding URLs to your favorites list and otherwise working with your account from off site. Desktop applications are also available for drag and drop bulk uploading and for automatically synching files from selected files with your Faces account. All the desktop apps are Windows only. What’s most interesting about Faces, beyond its feature set, is the business model. It’s big on multimedia sharing and users are encouraged to upload a lot of pictures and music. Users seeking to exceed the monthly limits on upload (500 MB) and bandwidth (10 GB) can purchase a pro account for $25 per year. And then there are no limits to how much media you can put in your account or your visitors can play from your profile page. There will be advertising placed on profile pages and by audio in between every 4 songs played on free account user pages. The company says it will split graphic ad revenue with pro users and remove audio ads from their playlists. They say they plan on paying royalties to rights holders of the music – though I question how that’s going to happen if I’ve uploaded files myself! The offending music player is pictured here, complete with a title URL (tunefeed.com) that’s just a 404. Update: It turns out that the company is paying a licensing fee to act as a streaming internet radio station and no matter where a music file you uploaded to your profile comes from, they count each time anyone plays it as an instance of that license being used. They are also working on adding a music store that will let listeners purchase songs through Faces. The seven person company has received a little over $2 million US dollars in private funding to date. Initial funding plus pro accounts plus graphic and audio advertising are where the money is coming from. Photo editing and mobile upload are said to be pending, both of which would → Read More
The oldest form of data entry on the planet is handwriting. We learn it before we learn to type. It’s not as efficient as a keyboard, but it can be done anywhere on about anything. (Don’t believe me? Check out any alley in Midtown, NYC.) Handwriting has become a viable option with PDAs and tablet PCs using virtual ink and handwriting recognition to transcribe what you’re scribbling into legible, pixelated ideas. But nothing really compares to a real pen and paper combo. Enter the Aiptek MyNote. It’s a standard letter-sized folio that uses regular paper. But using it’s battery-powered pen/stylus combo, and it’s own handwriting tracking system, it makes 1000-lpi digital copies of each page. It stores them in it’s built-in 32MB flash RAM (expandable via an SD slot), so you can later upload them to your Windows XP or 2000 machine via USB. From there, you can replace that doodle of your boss in the shark’s mouth with a multi-million dollar idea. See, we’re making you money already. MyNote [Aiptek] → Read More
A manager I once knew had an axiom: if it’s got a cable, it’s not really a gadget. As our portable devices get more and more powerful, the consume more and more energy. And technical advances have made formerly usable levels of power performance unacceptable–my first Powerbook, for instance, got around forty-five minutes of usage on a full charge… when it was brand new. Now, anything less than three hours is cause for a riot. The real problem this kind of advance induces is that as batteries reach higher capacities and performance metrics, they get more dangerous. Last week’s recalls of millions of exploding Sony laptop batteries is a blistering, literally in some case, reminder of what happens when the envelope is pushed beyond reason simply to satiate business models. Yet-Ming Chiang, an MIT scientist and the brains behind a new battery startup, says in this interview with Technology Review that the future has non-exploding laptop batteries for us. It’s a great read for information about the high-tech batteries of tomorrow. Because with great power comes the great responsibility of not burning people’s pants. How Future Batteries Will Be Longer-Lasting and Safer [Technology Review] → Read More
Located in Berlin, The Table of Free Voices is the fastest, most high-tech table in human history. The table jas a camera and a microphone built into each of its 112 places, allowing the responses of each individual to be recorded and saved as an individually searchable audiovisual portrait. The Table of Free Voices is 124 feet in diameter and is basically a big supercomputer. The lead programmer of Dropping Knowledge describes the table’s specs: In terms of computing power, the Table delivers a peak performance of around 230 GFLOPS, which means that it can calculate 230,000,000,000 floating point operations per second. Packed with technology, the table features 112 Mini-DV Cameras, 112 Mac Minis with 224 Intel Core CPU cores running at 1.66 GHz, more than 36 terabytes of storage space spread over 224 individual hard drives and miles of cabling. While in recording mode, the table records 112 DV audio-video streams with a total bandwidth of over 3.8 Gigabits per second and performs a real-time h.264 compression on all 112 video streams.By the evening of September 9th, the Table will have recorded, compressed and stored almost 700 hours of video footage, as both high-quality material and in compressed, ready for streaming formats. On top of all that, Free Voices will be transcribed and translated into numerous languages and made freely accessible to all in a variety of digital formats. On September 9, 2006, 112 scientists, social entrepreneurs, philosophers, writers, artists and activists from around the world will come together in Berlin, Germany, as guests of dropping knowledge. They will engage with 100 questions from the global public. The questions will reflect the topics of greatest concern to the global public, emphasize under-reported issues and engage key themes endorsed by dropping knowledge in 2006. So mark your calendars, you know, if you’re into that sort of thing. <a href=" [Dropping Knowldge] → Read More
Sony Ericsson plans to further develop its PlayNow service, which is currently only used to listen to and download ringtones. The spokesman from the Japenese-Swedish group did not give any details on how the service will be changed, or when the changes will occour, saying simply: We are developing the PlayNow service further, it is part of our bigger music strategy. As the prices of phones are droping as consumers demand cheaper phones, digital music is currently a key feature driving more expensive phones for manufacturers. Personally, I’m curious to see what Sony Ericsson comes up with. Maybe they’ll develop something that will finally eliminate carrying around my iPod everywhere I go. PlayNow Development [Reuters] → Read More
