Whoever predicted that Apple would introduce iWork ’09 today gets a gold star. Keynote, Pages and Numbers all received what I would consider minor updates; no need to run around all willy nilly for these, methinks. → Read More
I’ve been looking for something like this my whole life — and of course now that I’ve found it, I can’t have it. MusicBox is the Masters thesis project of MIT Media Lab student Anita. I’ve never been impressed with things like Coverflow and Genius because they seem so shallow; there’s so much metadata in and around our music libraries that something more robust should certainly be possible, I always thought. And look, someone like-minded but far more capable than myself has created a powerful, intuitive, and attractive tool for visualizing, sorting, and playing your music. → Read More
MIT professor Hal Abelson started today’s final presentation for the school’s “Building Mobile Applications” class by saying, “A course like this couldn’t have existed ten years ago… maybe not even a year ago. Courses like this right now are unique, but in two years they’ll be completely ordinary.” What’s extraordinary is that on top of a full college course-load at one of the most challenging schools in the country, these groups of students built fully working mobile applications for Windows Mobile, Android, and Symbian devices while mentors from the likes of Google, Nokia, Bank of America, and Microsoft oversaw their progress. → Read More
Look at Apple, all busy filing patents and whatnot. Take this one (well, these ones), which shows several potential 3D interfaces for the Finder. The patents were first filed, according to AppleInsider, in June of last year under the name “Multi-Dimensional Desktop.” It’s as you might imagine: the Dock & Co. are able to move along the Z axis in addition to the normal XY axes. A simple concept, yes—“hey, let’s make the Finder 3D”—but one that really hasn’t been deployed in any meaningful way yet. The question then becomes, when can we expect such an interface? Probably not with the next version of OS X, 10.6, (that’s “O Ess Ten” not “O Ess Ecks”), or Snow Leopard, which is rumored to be released on next June. (Rumored in so far as Apple said in June that it was about a year away.) → Read More
Sure, you could pay $1.00 for this new VLC remote control app [iTunes link] for the iPhone (and iPod touch), or you could simply select “Add Interface, Web Interface” then point your iPhone to the resulting Web server. After that, you can apply this skin to your iPhone to make the whole package look a little more elegant. Not to knock the new app, mind you, but it strikes me as an unnecessary waste of your money, considering VLC+Web Interface+iPhone already does the trick, and then some. Your choice. via Lifehacker → Read More
Here’s a random software recommendation for Mac OS X users. A ProTip, if you will. If you’re into IRC at all, you should check out Linkinus, which is developed by Conceited Software. I bought it last spring and have been using it ever since. Yes, I understand the concept of buying an IRC application borders on the insane, what with X-Chat being free and all, but the shareware period is long enough to decide if you want it or not. The main innovation of Linkinus, which costs £12.50 (right now, around $18.54), aside from its customizable user interface, is this pane system it uses. It divides the main window into as many panes as you want. In each pane is a chat room, meaning that you can follow several different rooms simultaneously. (I typically follow What.cd’s room, HDBits’ room and 2600′s room.) It’s pretty neat, otherwise I wouldn’t waste your time with this post. It’s also a fairly esoteric application, so unless you’re searching MacUpdate or VersionTracker for “IRC” you’re not likely to come across it during your daily Internetting. So yeah, if you’re looking for a better-than-average IRC app be sure to check Linkinus out. And no, I don’t know the developers from a hole in the wall, I just thought some of you might like it. → Read More
Spending your fiat money from the comfort of your iPhone is even easier, now that Amazon has released an application (“App”) for Apple’s little wonder. The mundane functions are as you’d expect: you launch the app, then you can browse and buy goods from Amazon just as you would from your computer. What’s worth singling out is this little photo-takign feature. Using the app, you take a photo with your iPhone then send it to Amazon. Then, after a bit of voodoo, Amazon sends you an e-mail with a link to products that match the photo (or its best guess). For example, you take a photo of a a french press, then Amazon sends you links to french presses you can buy from them. Technologically neat, sure, but you wonder how well it works in practice… and me without an iPhone! → Read More
http://www.viddler.com/player/df48093d/ One of the most exciting things I’ve seen at Nokia World 2008 is the Point and Find service: aim a phone camera at an object and the camera detects what it is. Currently set to debut in London and San Francisco, the initial version of the application will be tied to movie posters. Point your camera at a movie poster and the software will identify the movie, fetch reviews, provide links to trailers, and use the GPS in the phone to display the closet cinema and its showtimes for that film. → Read More
Israeli scientists have developed software that turns your ugly mug into a mathematically beautiful visage. Yes, we have evolved a great deal, us humans. What the software (a Photoshop plugin) does is alters a face to make it “look” more attractive, based on mathematics and “perceived” attractiveness. If you’ve watched any of those TLC or Discovery Channel documentaries about human behavior, you’ll know that things like distance between someone’s eyes, shape of someone’s nose, etc. all affect a person’s level of attractiveness. A woman whose eyes are too far apart—and we’re talking micrometers here—might as well wear a paper bag over her head. Yes, this raises some ethical concerns. Will people use this software to “improve” their looks with plastic surgery? Will this make people think they’re ugly? Will Sarah Jessica still look like a horse? One of the silliest stories I’ve heard in a while. via The Insider → Read More
You know the HP TouchSmart? It’s a neat bit of work—that is, it has to potential to be. That potential is now one step closer to reality given that HP has just opened it up to third-party development. Would-be developers need to sashay over to the TouchSmart Community. There you’ll find the necessary software to develop your fancy application. I think it’s fairly obvious from the above few sentences that I don’t have a developer bone on my body. via Slashdot → Read More
Been putting off that Windows Mobile 6.0 upgrade for your HTC 8525? You’ve only got about 9 days left. HTC has announced that they will be removing all Windows Mobile 6.0 upgrades from their site. For our US readers, the only devices you need to worry about are the AT&T 8525 (HTC Hermes) and the T-Mobile Dash (S621). As PhoneNews points out, neither of these handsets have been given the 6.1 treatment yet (at least, not officially) – if you don’t get to upgrading, it’ll be a bit tougher to get’em up and running on WinMo 6 before you know it. → Read More
You’re looking at the BlackBerry Application Center, RIM’s answer to Apple’s App Store and Google’s Android Market. Same basic concept as the other two—you browse and buy applications that enhance your BlackBerry experience. The Application Center—we’re running out of variants of the term “application store!”—is set to debut with the BlackBerry Storm software version 4.7. All application data will be stored at the carriers’ locale; RIM is totally out of the loop as far as that goes. It’s supposed to differentiate the Application Center from the App Store in that regard—carriers can put the applications they want on their own little store. So there you have it, RIM’s attempt to cash into the nascent application craze. I can’ tell if it’s going after Wall Street (well, what’s left of it) or Main Street with this, and the Storm more generally. As if this one BlackBerry (out of how many?) will capture the same type of minshare that the iPhone already. Then there’s the G1. But, hey, should make for some interesting days ahead. → Read More
For those of you who don’t care for the stock interface or firmware on your digital music player, there’s the Rockbox firmware, which works on many Archos, iRiver, iPod, iAudio, Gigabeat, and Sansa devices. The firmware features extended codec support (OGG, Flac, etc.) plus enhanced audio magic, MPEG video support, tagging, plug-ins, playlist creation, games, and more (see the full feature list here). Plus, it’s open source so it gets developed on a fairly regular basis. Version 3.0 was recently released, adding new software decoding features, a new installer, more codecs, and various miscellaneous updates and improvements. [via Lifehacker] → Read More
In the war against software piracy, it seems that the rule is: If you can’t beat ‘em, lower the price to almost nothing and hope to make at least a little bit of money. Such is the case in China, where last year’s software piracy rate was over 80% according to the Financial Times. In the hopes of actually selling some stuff over there, Microsoft has lowered the price of Office Home and Student 2007 to the equivalent of $29 – more than 70% off of the previous MSRP. It appears to be working, too, as retailers stocked up on about a half-year’s worth of inventory for the new promotion and have “run out faster than they had expected.” This all begs the question, though: What kind of message does this send? Pirate enough software and the legit versions will eventually become affordable? → Read More
San Francisco, CA
