I feel like technology is at a point where a new mind-blowing, game-changing discovery is just around the corner. Well if Skinput is any indication as to how we will be interacting with data and devices, than I’d say we are closer than I thought to this breakthrough.
Skinput, a technology currently in research by a couple of Microsoft Researchers and a Carnegie Mellon grad, is a very cool concept that will make it’s way into devices one way or another. The idea is to eliminate the use of touchscreens and keyboards and replace them with things that surround us anyways, such as walls or tables. But Skinput uses your skin as the surface of choice by tracking the frequencies at which your skin ripples after contact.
At this point the set-up required to use Skinput is an armband that senses the vibrations, and a pico projector attached to the shoulder to turn your arm into a screen. At this point the Skinput project has a 95% accuracy rating and can be used when the body is in motion. Even with this being the research stage of the project, I can’t wait to see what large manufacturers could do with this very cool input method.
It must be a great feeling when you can sit back and watch something rake in $13,000 big ones a month. For Eddie Kim, he is already experiencing that ever since popularity of his Car Locator Android app increased tremendously in daily sales. However, it wasn’t always netting thousands of dollars a month, there were some days when he would be lucky to make just $80 a day!
Eddie Kim, creator of Car Locator, posted on his blog about the popularity and profits he has accrued since the app hit the Android Market. He offers some statistics on the app such as 70,000 free downloads, 6,590 paid downloads, and it once reached #4 top paid app in the travel category. Through the app’s lifetime, the price has increased from $1.99 to $3.99, but that does not seem to deter most Android users from downloading the app. Despite the positive numbers, it began only generating $80-$100 in revenue a day, until it became featured in the Market where it began reaching $400 daily, with a record of $772 on Valentine’s day alone! Kim suspects downloads increase enormously on weekends and holidays, cited by the nearly doubling in profit on Valentine’s Day.
Even though his app has been displayed on the featured apps in the Market, Kim claims it alternates top apps daily, and his app has been found through searches as opposed to featured apps. Unfortunately, it is hard to stop piracy on the Android platform, as Kim finds out through Twitter that it is quite possible to get the .apk file online. However, that does not take away from his achievement: $13,000 a month with room for improvement.
For ambitious Android developers, he offers this piece of advice:
If Android development is something you’ve been mulling over, I encourage you to make the leap. Though my experiences are clearly not typical, I definitely think Android is the ideal platform to be in for an individual developer.
The Sony dash “Personal Internet Viewer” is now available for pre-order on SonyStyle.com. The “Chumby for grown-ups” as Gadgetell editor Robert Nelson calls it, can be secured for only $199 and applicable taxes in the area where the device will be shipped. Pre-orders are expected to arrive “on or about” April 15, 2010, giving you a chance to use this media device while doing last-minute prep on your tax returns (I wonder if this counts as a business expense since I’m writing about the product).
The dash debuted at CES amid a sea of tablets and ereaders. Sony made sure to pitch this not as a super-portable tablet, but an Internet browser and media player with a dedicated position in a home or office. The dash would display photos, tell time, provide alarms, play music/videos, and be a convenient device for browsing the web. The presenters at Sony’s CES booth I visited said it would be the perfect device to put in the kitchen or bedroom.
Media files, web browsing, and social networking take center stage with the dash. Those who pre-order will get Facebook, Twitter, and Pandora integrated into the device, as well as the ability to stream Netflix Watch Instantly content on its 7-inch display.
Bing has announced that it will begin listing user search history among autosuggestions in its search bar. The new function is designed to make it easier for people who frequently search similar topics to revisit their history when necessary. The catalyst for the autosuggestion came because “many people found [Bing’s] history feature very useful to get them to where they’re going faster. So we experimented with providing your prior searches in Autosuggest.”
Performing a Bing search will now reveal previous search terms in purple, much like your browser displays previously-visited links in purple. This will make it easier to re-open previous searches about HDTV’s if you are researching different brands over several days in order to choose the right television to purchase. (Note: Users concerned about privacy can turn this feature off.)
According to Bing, 44% of non-navigational search sessions can last longer than a week. That suggests that people are often revisiting similar information in an effort to better understand issues or make decisions - say iPhone vs. Blackberry when deciding which new phone to purchase. The new autosuggestion feature is likely to make that repetitive search experience easier for Bing users.
Zune HD owners can finally let the world know what song their listening to, update their status about that crazy thing that happened to them at work today, and see photos of their friends and family thanks to the arrival of the Facebook app for Zune HD.
Facebook is still one of the most popular destinations on the web and many Zune owners have been itching for the new app for months. The Zune HD Facebook app has finally arrived with the following four main sections: Home (news stream), You (Profile), Friends (list/status updates), and Messages (um, messages). Other than timewasters like Farmville, much of the Facebook experience has been made available.
Sadly, the new app hasn’t run as smoothly as one would hope. There have been scattered reports of server issues preventing many people from downloading the app or pulling down data once they log-in. The problems first started occurring when news of the Facebook app broke late last night, but Zune HD owners should make an attempt at grabbing the app now and crossing their fingers. The Zune HD Facebook app is free.
FROM GAMERTELL - Nyko is releasing its $29.99 Wand Wii controller in five new colors. Certain colors will only be available at certain stores though. For example, red Wands will only be at Fry’s. MORE »
This week, Microsoft will show off some projects in development to employees at the Microsoft Research showcase in Redmond. The employee-only event will show off new directions for the company that the rest of us may see in the years to come. One such project involves Microsoft’s fun Surface product and making it mobile.
We’ve all seen those giant pressure sensitive Surface tables capable of recognizing objects that are placed on it and take appropriate actions such as downloading images off a camera or syncing a mobile phone. You can find these fun tables in hotels (like the Hard Rock in Vegas), and in stores (like AT&T retail shops). Now it looks like Microsoft is working on a way to remove the table while perserving the Surface experience.
Mary Jo Foley over at ZD Net found a Microsoft web page with these details:
"Our goal is to bring Microsoft Surface experience to mobile scenarios, and more importantly, to enable 3D interaction with mobile devices. We do research on how to transform any surface (e.g., a coffee table or a piece of paper) to Mobile Surface with a mobile device and a camera-projector system. Besides this, our work also includes how to get 3D object model in real-time, augmented reality and multiple-layer 3D information presentation."
Unfortunately, the link is broken now but shows that Microsoft is paying attention to arguably it’s most exciting project in a long time. The Surface has always shown such promise and bringing that experience to any flat surface would be a compelling offering. We’ve seen attempts that promise almost hardware-free computers but the tech always seems distant. Perhaps Microsoft can be the one to shepherd this through to consumers.
I’ve been calling for a Surface Phone for years based on the chord that Microsoft hit with Surface. Maybe a tablet based on Surface wouldn’t be too bad either.
When Google announced they would hooking selected towns up with ultra fast fiber optic Internet connection, Topeka, Kansas decided it would be in on the action. So the capitol city did what any of us would do: set about creating a Facebook page, passed around a petition and decided it would change its name to Google, Kansas for the month of March. Genius.
This isn’t the first time Topeka has temporarily changed its name to attract attention. Anyone remember “ToPikachu” from the 1998 launch of Pokemon media franchise which kicked off in Topeka, er ToPikachu. With the Google name change, Topeka is looking to set itself apart from other cities vying for Google’s attention like Baton Rouge and Grand Rapids.
Google has asked local governments and their residents to get involved. From Google’s page: “Google is asking local governments and residents to express their interest in the fiber optic trial, and to provide information about their community by completing our request for information.” If you read between the lines, Google is almost begging towns and cities to change their names. Unreal.
Despite last hearing, and seeing images of the DR-950 e-reader from Asus we have seen the official unveiling of the DR-900. Asus made the DR-900 official during CeBIT and as far as features its not all that surprising. The DR-900 comes sporting a 9-inch (1024 x 768) display with Wi-Fi, 4GB of storage, a 3.5mm headphone jack as well as ePUB, PDF, TXT and MP3 file support. Additionally, those interested in the DR-900 can expect a battery life of up to 10,000 page turns and an option to have built-in 3G connectivity. Though the DR-900 has been officially unveiled there are still a few details missing—you know, the important ones such as the pricing and availability.
We saw webOS version 1.4 come available for most carrier versions of the Palm Pre and Pixi this past Saturday, and in a little bit of good news for Palm Pre (and Pixi) Plus users with Verizon—your 1.4 update is now available as well. The details are what you would have expected, especially if you read the change log for the Sprint update. But just in case, here is the Verizon wireless change log, with all of the details. Otherwise, hit up the update app on your phone and get going with webOS 1.4.
Amazon MP3 When you download a song, the application shows the estimated download time. If you purchase an album containing two or more identically named songs, Amazon MP3 now downloads all of the songs correctly.
App Catalog An application developer can feature a video in App Catalog by providing a YouTube URL for the developer's application. The URL appears as a link on the app details screen. Tapping the link opens the video in the phone's YouTube application.
Bluetooth If you create a conference call from two outgoing calls, you can now end the conference call from a headset, if the headset model supports this feature.
Calendar You can customize calendar notification sounds in Preferences & Accounts. The options include Mute, System Sound, Ringtone, and Vibrate. The Ringtone option includes new notification sounds to give you more customization choices. With this release, future occurrences of repeating Calendar events consistently appear correctly. If you create an event and enters a phone number as the event name, location, or description, you can tap the phone number on the event details screen to dial it. A new Select All application menu item is available when the cursor is in an editable text field. A new Sync Now application menu item gives you a second way to manually synchronize your calendar accounts (in addition to the Sync Now button in Preferences & Accounts). This release improves Calendar synchronization performance in poor network coverage areas to optimize battery life. It also increases the default interval for synchronizing with online calendar accounts other than Exchange accounts. Editing a Google calendar event on the phone no longer sets an email reminder in Google on the web. This release contains improvements to the visual calendar display, including a clearer indicator of AM and PM and improved current time display. If you set VZW Navigator as the default application for mapping calendar event addresses, tapping the Event Location > Show On Map application menu item in Calendar correctly launches VZW Navigator.
Camera You can record video whenever and wherever inspiration strikes with the new camcorder feature in Camera. After recording a video, you can edit the clip in Videos, upload the video directly to YouTube or Facebook, or send the video by email or multimedia message.
Contacts Global Address Lookup now appears as a contacts search option when you perform a universal search. If you import a Mac Address Book contact, all contact fields display correctly in the Contacts application. If you select the Select All application menu item, text in all contact entry fields is selected. This release improves Contacts synchronization performance in poor network coverage areas to optimize battery life. It also increases the default interval for synchronizing with online contacts accounts other than Exchange accounts. Email addresses for Yahoo! contacts now have descriptive labels such as Home and Work. Phone numbers labeled Other for Yahoo! contacts now appear with the Other label in the Contacts application.
Device Info You now have two partial erase options: Erase Apps & Data, which erases all installed applications and associated data, and Erase USB Drive, which erases files stored on the USB drive. This release includes a new Secure Full Erase option. A secure full erase takes considerably longer than a regular full erase.
Email You can customize calendar notification sounds in Preferences & Accounts. The options include Mute, System Sound, Ringtone, and Vibrate. The Ringtone option includes new notification sounds to give you more customization choices. A new Sort application menu item allows you to sort the message list in any email folder. The sort options are By Date, By Sender, and By Subject. Tapping the currently selected sort option changes the sort from ascending to descending or descending to ascending. Tapping another sort option sorts by that option in ascending order. When you receive a message with one or more attached files, the first file to be fully downloaded opens automatically. You can tap a phone number in the subject line of an email message to dial it, or tap a URL in the subject line to open the web browser to that page. If the message body contains a phone number and you tap and hold the number, a menu appears displaying options to Call, Text, or Add To Contacts (if the number is not already saved in a contact). If the message body contains an email address and you tap and hold the address, a menu appears displaying options to Email or Add To Contacts (if the email address is not already saved in a contact). You can sign in to an email account with a domain of up to six letters (such as .museum or .travel). For POP email accounts, a new preference lets you choose to delete a message on the phone when it is deleted on the server. The default is that messages deleted on the server are not deleted on the phone. If you forward a message that contains attachments, and the attachments are not downloaded, the Email app first downloads the attachments and then forwards the message with the files attached. In an Exchange account, if you delete one or more attachments to a received message and then forward the message, the Email app no longer includes the deleted attachments with the forwarded message. You can successfully move a message from the Trash folder to the Inbox in a Yahoo! account. If you send a message with an attachment from a Hotmail account to another Hotmail account, the message is sent correctly with the attachment. If you send an email that contains periods from an SMTP account, the periods display correctly in the recipient's email application. If you reply to an email message with a large number of recipients, the reply screen opens scrolled to the message body so you can begin typing the reply text right away. If you search a Global Address List for a contact in the Email app, the app returns the same set of search results as if you were searching in Contacts. Special characters display correctly in the subject line of a received message. If you are working in one application and perform an action that opens the Email application—for example, by tapping an email address in Contacts to compose an email message—when you complete the action, the Email application displays full-screen (not as a card). This release offers improved account setup for Yahoo and Gmail hosted domains. You can select and edit text from a message that you are forwarding. This release includes multiple performance improvements in Email, including improved handling of message replies and forwarded messages and quicker response times to gestures.
Location Services If you turn off the Use GPS and Use Google Services options under the Locate Me Using application menu item, the Locate Me Using menu item remains available. Memos
If a memo contains a phone number and you tap and hold the number, a menu appears displaying options to Call, Text, or Add To Contacts (if the number is not already saved in a contact). If a memo contains an email address and you tap and hold the address, a menu appears displaying options to Email or Add To Contacts (if the email address is not already saved in a contact).
Messaging You can dial a phone number directly from a conversation by tapping Text or the IM account name displayed in the upper-right corner and tapping the phone icon next to the number you want to dial. Phone numbers include the type of number: home, mobile, and so on. You can attach a video to an outgoing multimedia message. You can forward a text or multimedia message via email by tapping and holding the message and tapping Forward Via Email in the menu that appears. The Email application opens in compose view with the message text as the body of the new email message. If the message was a multimedia message, the multimedia message appears in the Subject field of the email, and any attachments from the multimedia message appear as attachments in the email. If a message contains a phone number and you tap and hold the number, a menu appears displaying options to Call, Text, or Add To Contacts (if the number is not already saved in a contact). If a message contains an email address and you tap and hold the address, a menu appears displaying options to Email or Add To Contacts (if the email address is not already saved in a contact). In a conversation, incoming and outgoing messages are labeled with the phone number or IM account used. You can now send a multimedia message over the Verizon Wireless data network when the phone is connected to a Wi-Fi network.
Palm mobile hotspot After update 1.4, Palm mobile hotspot is available as an application on the Launcher. You no longer need to download the app from App Catalog, and the app is no longer available from App Catalog. Note that Palm mobile hotspot requires a mobile hotspot data feature (available from Verizon Wireless for a monthly fee) that is separate from your phone data plan. If you turn on Wi-Fi when Palm mobile hotspot is on, Wi-Fi turns on and Palm mobile hotspot turns off.
Phone Multiple sequential calls to and from the same person are now grouped as a single entry in your call history. You can tap the contact photo or icon in a call history entry to display options for that entry, including dialing an alternate number, sending a text message, opening a contact, or adding the number as a contact. The expanded display also includes call details such as call length and phone number type. If you create a conference call from two outgoing calls, you can now end the conference call from a Bluetooth headset, if the headset model supports this feature. If you access the list of countries from the International Dialing preference, you can search the list by entering the first few letters of a country name. If you are on a call with a contact, tapping the contact photo on the active call screen no longer opens the contact entry.
Photos Photos you copy onto the phone now appear correctly rotated in Photos, regardless of their initial rotation.
Screen & Lock New blink notifications (a blinking light in the gesture area) alert you when email, text message, or other notifications arrive. You clear the blink notification by turning the screen on and off or unlocking the screen. The blink notification preference is on by default; you can turn it off in Screen & Lock > Blink Notifications. Screen lock now supports any timeout interval assigned by a corporate Exchange system administrator.
Sounds & Ringtones This release adds new user-selectable notification sounds under Ringtone.
System This release offers better overall performance, including faster loading time for apps and increased battery life across a wider range of user scenarios. A startup card appears when you tap an icon to open an application. Global Address Lookup now appears as a contacts search option when you perform a universal search. If you tap an open contact record in universal search results, the record closes and does not scroll off the screen. If you are playing a game and a phone or calendar notification arrives, the game pauses while the notification is coming up. You can quickly unlock the screen by dragging up from the gesture area across the onscreen lock icon. This release improves the speed of downloading applications and files. The title bar icon indicating a high-speed data network now shows 3G instead of Ev.
Updates If an update becomes available when you are on a call, the update notification displays only after you end the call.
Videos You can upload a recorded video to YouTube or Facebook on the web. Videos you record appear in the Video roll folder. You can edit recorded video. You can also delete recorded video, video copied from a computer, or video received as an attachment to an email message. You can attach a video to an outgoing multimedia message. If you tap the option to share an uploaded video, you have the option to send the link via email, text message, or Facebook.
Web If a web page contains a phone number and you tap and hold the number, a menu appears displaying options to Call, Text, or Add To Contacts (if the number is not already saved in a contact). If a web page contains an email address and you tap and hold the address, a menu appears displaying options to Email or Add To Contacts (if the email address is not already saved in a contact). This release includes support for the Adobe Flash 10.1 Beta plugin. Note that the plugin is a standalone app that will be available in App Catalog.
Wi-Fi A new Sleep Settings application menu item allows you to change a setting so that if Wi-Fi is on and the phone screen turns off, the Wi-Fi feature turns off. By default, if Wi-Fi is on and the screen turns off, the Wi-Fi feature stays on. If you turn on Wi-Fi when Palm mobile hotspot is on, Wi-Fi turns on and Palm mobile hotspot turns off.
Security This release implements a security fix to the developer portal. It now uses HTTPS to protect all sensitive data. We’d like to thank Andrew King and Michael Siroskey for reporting this issue.
Individuals interested in contacting Palm to report suspected security issues can find more information at palm.com/security .
Its the morning of March 2nd and you woke up realizing that the issues you are having with your Windows 7 Release Candidate operating system are not going away. Well, they are not going to go away, in fact they are here to stay and its time to upgrade. Yup, the free ride on the Windows 7 train has come to an end. Its time to pay up or uninstall.
Of course, technically you can keep using your RC version of Windows 7 until June 1, 2010 however if you choose to go forward you can expect to have your PC shut down every two hours. Its also important to point out that any work you may have open during those scheduled shutdowns will be lost. Again, its time to upgrade, or just go without.
Additionally, the RC version of Windows 7 is also supposed to turn your wallpaper into a solid black background, however, so far I have not seen any reports of that. And as for my use, Windows 7 was simply removed. It was nice while it lasted but at the same time not really needed.
This week, Microsoft will show off some projects in development to employees at the Microsoft Research showcase in Redmond. The employee-only event will show off new directions for the company that the rest of us may see in the years to come. One such project involves Microsoft’s fun Surface product and making it mobile.
When Google announced they would hooking selected towns up with ultra fast fiber optic Internet connection, Topeka, Kansas decided it would be in on the action. So the capitol city did what any of us would do: set about creating a Facebook page, passed around a petition and decided it would change its name to Google, Kansas for the month of March. Genius.
We saw 
Its the morning of March 2nd and you woke up realizing that the 
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