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The Kindle will soon be available at Target locations nationwide

Posted: 02 Jun 2010 05:35 AM PDT


This has been a long time coming. The Kindle has slowly been creeping into Target retail outlets the last few months, but the company just issued a presser stating that the most popular ebook reader on the planet will be available nationwide on June 6th. This officially makes Target Amazon’s first brick and mortar retail partner, although Target isn’t new to the ebook game.

Target’s been hawking (or at least attempting to) the Sony Reader line for since 2008. The Sony models have a prime end-of-aisle display, complete with all sorts of accessories and pre-paid book certificates. The Kindle is likely to get the same treatment and might even push the Sony Reader out of its long-held spot.

But for good reason. The Kindle is Amazon’s best selling item of all time, which is saying something as many of the buyers have probably never touched one before ordering theirs. The Target partnership will open up reader the to even more demographics as those leery about the physical feel can now actually fondle the device before dropping $259 on the device. Smart move.

Google Chrome OS set to launch this fall

Posted: 02 Jun 2010 05:18 AM PDT


The wait it almost over for Google Chrome OS. The operating system based on Google’s Chrome browser, hence the name, should be released for free this coming autumn.

Google expects big things from the launch, too. Google’s VP of product management stated “We expect it to reach millions of users on day.” That just might happen — if there’s a hardware partner in place.

It’s not unreasonable to think that Google is current working with OEMs for a day-and-date hardware launch as well. There’s a good amount of curious users waiting for what they believe is the answer to the iPad. Hardware firms like Asus already publicly committed to Chrome OS. Maybe there’s a Chrome OS tablet in the works as well.

But no worries, the fall is right around the corner. The leaves will be changing colors and new the operating system will finally be available from the kind folks at Google.

iPad accessories for fun and profit

Posted: 02 Jun 2010 04:26 AM PDT


If Computex proves anything, it’s that what Asia makes the rest of the world takes… or at least thinks about taking before deciding to buy something else. Take this iPad stand, for example. At first blush it looks great: it turns your iPad into an iMac.

Then you look at it again and you’re like “Nahhh…”

The stand, made by Luxa2, has no price or availability, so there’s no definitive proof that it will ever arrive on our shores. Shanzai has a great video of it in action:

Video: Japanese doctors use iPad during surgery

Posted: 02 Jun 2010 03:21 AM PDT

As we all know by now, the iPad can be used in many ways, and we know it’s a hit product. The Japanese seem to embrace the device, too (it came out in that country a few days ago). And for some strange reason, Japanese doctors in particular love the iPad. Last month, we reported about one living in Fukuoka in Southern Japan who x-rayed his device and posted a picture on his blog.

And now a team of doctors at a hospital run by Kobe University has actually used the iPad during a surgery as a display. In the video embedded below, you can see a doctor (or assistant) zooming in and out of images shown on the iPad’s screen during the procedure.

It’s not really an elegant solution, as not only the device is wrapped in plastic, but it also requires two people to hold it in place and to show the screen to doctors. But we may be on our way to give one iPad to each doctor and nurse on the planet (the doctor at the end says it was actually useful during the procedure).

Here’s the video (in Japanese):

Via Japan Probe

Daily Crunch: Shelved Edition

Posted: 02 Jun 2010 12:00 AM PDT

Commodore knocks off the Eee keyboard, calls it the “Invictus”

Posted: 01 Jun 2010 08:21 PM PDT


How’d we miss this weird thing? Straight into the WTF pile for you! A company we never hear from comes out with a (admittedly nice-looking) clone of a product that’s kind of weird to begin with — a product that doesn’t seem to be flying off the shelves, to boot. *boggle*

Here are the only specs available, as whispered by this forum jockey:

  • Ion-based
  • Resistive touchscreen (uses stylus)
  • Wireless HDMI
  • 5+ hour battery
  • Is that bitch running Windows XP?

Invictus, though? That’s a bit of a pretentious name for a knockoff. Why not the Ameeegaboard? I like Ameeegaboard.

“A few weeks” is the announcement estimate. Just weird as hell. Invictus?!

New Asus mobo has an integrated discrete GPU

Posted: 01 Jun 2010 08:00 PM PDT


Generally when we talk about integrated GPUs, it’s with a sniff. Onboard graphics? Please. They can’t even handle Windows’ visual effects, much less Call of Duty’s. This new motherboard from Asus, shown at Computex, will break the cycle by integrating not some bargain bin silicon, but a real GPU you can buy on the street. In this case it’s a Radeon HD 5770 (no slouch), and with HYDRA capability, the mobo can put it in SLI with any GPU or GPUs you decide to add in.

If you’re wondering why people didn’t do this before, it’s because this is going to make the motherboard pretty expensive. A 5770 goes for at least $150, and even if you take into account the lack of PCB and PCI interface, it’s still going to cost a pretty penny. This is for moneyed enthusiasts only — and even they may not buy, since they may prefer a more traditional approach to SLI.

My question is this: if the benefit is allowing the integrated and PCI-E GPUs to run in SLI, why even bother having a serious GPU there? Anything will do, really, and give a decent little performance boost due to increased memory channels and such. I don’t know, maybe I’m missing something here. The Asus mobo is still a prototype right now, though, so I suspect they’re working out the best price/performance combo.

Head over to PC Perspective for a video of the mobo in question.

Cat@Log allows cats to tweet, signals end times

Posted: 01 Jun 2010 06:40 PM PDT


Sony is working on creating a dedicated lifecasting (or perhaps “lifecatsing”) collar for cats that records regular images and tweets the cat’s current activity. It’s basically this thing combined with this thing, plus social networking.

As Nicholas likes to say: Come on, meteor.

The device, which is preliminarily named Cat@Log, contains a GPS sensor, an accelerometer, and a camera. It records constantly and currently has a vocabulary of 11 tweets it can fire off when an action or series of actions is performed. For instance, as Tech-On notes, if the cat walks around for a while and then eats, it can tweet “Meals taste better after a walk >:3″ — I added the little cat face in there, which should probably be in every cat tweet, but you get the idea.


(related)

Although they say they were careful to reduce the size of the device, it still looks pretty damn bulky. Cats probably won’t appreciate it. And that exposed PCB isn’t going to survive long in the water dish.

I like how the caption at Tech-On tells you that this is a fake cat. Just in case you weren’t sure!

[via GeekSugar and Mashable]

Steve Jobs is going to say something at D8 tonight

Posted: 01 Jun 2010 06:16 PM PDT

All Things D aka D8 is happening right now and they’re blogging live, describing the exciting things Steve Jobs will say in grave detail. What do you reckon he’ll say? If it’s anything good, I’ll update this post but feel free to posit in comments below.

UPDATE – Engadget has some nice coverage as well. Steve on Flash: “Sometimes you have to pick the right horses. Flash looks like it had its day but it’s waning, and HTML5 looks like it’s coming up.”

OOF – Walt: We don’t know the whole story… I wanted to ask you about the duality to this. Some people don’t approve of checkbook journalism. If what we know is true, but on the other hand the police go and don’t issue a search warrant, and they grab someone’s computer — there’s a lot of stuff, at least with my computer I wouldn’t want anyone to have, and they grab this journalists assets…

Steve: Well a guy… who can say if he’s a journalist.

On Siri purchase: Steve: They’re not a search company. They’re an AI company. We have no plans to go into the search business. We don’t care about it — other people do it well.

Are there advantages of having two carriers in the US? BOOM. Steve: There might be. The future is long.

Apple cracking down on widgety and desktop-y iPad apps

Posted: 01 Jun 2010 05:30 PM PDT


If you thought you could handle the iPad because there will be apps that truly customize the interface, I laugh in your general direction. No, wait, Steve Jobs does. I’m reminded of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, in which that lady keeps adding rules and pronouncements to the wall, hemming in the Hogwarts population bit by bit, and punishing transgressors with a magic quill. Apple doesn’t have a magic quill (yet… iPain?), but it does get to veto apps for a growing number of semi-obscure reasons, and the latest one is “apps that create their own desktops.”

Apparently apps were expanding the UI a bit too much, resulting in a whole dangerous new world where things weren’t aligned on the Apple grid, and non-canon fonts were displaying things in foreign corners of the screen. The horror! The news comes by way of one Australian developer whose photo frame app, MyFrame, was rejected for being too desktop-y, presumably because it allowed you to add a sticky and see social media updates in non-Apple ways.

Apple doesn’t want widgets or widget-esque apps either now — which is too bad, since as far as I’m concerned, the whole damn thing should have been designed around widgets to begin with. I’m telling you: as soon as these restrictions reach critical mass, customers are going to blow up, and (I swear I just made this up) once you go hack, you never go back.

Ironically, the same developer wrote a defense of Apple’s iron-fisted content management tactics just a month ago. It seems his sympathies may have shifted somewhat over the last few weeks.

[via The Register]

Finally, a worthwhile use for all those old National Geographics

Posted: 01 Jun 2010 04:00 PM PDT


I love National Geographic, but man, there are a lot of them out there. How many basement bookcases sag under the weight of 20 years of National Geographics? It’s one of those magazines that people tend to keep rather than recycle after reading — to its credit, no doubt, but perhaps it’s time to do something else with them. I don’t often approve of dismembering print media, but when it’s to make a bookshelf — well, then I can make an exception.

The creator of this charming little item is one Sean Miller, a Seattleite like me — and a more creative one, for that matter. He soaked the whole stack in a water/starch mixture and then put it under pressure so it’d dry solid, and then carved out the bookcase portion with a bandsaw. I’m not sure I’d trust it to hold too many books, but it sure is a beautiful and unique piece of work.

[via Inhabitat, Make, and Neatorama]

Zoom H1 audio recorder: tiny and attractive

Posted: 01 Jun 2010 03:31 PM PDT


Dedicated audio recorders are getting rarer and rarer due to the ability to record directly to your mobile or computer, but for high quality stereo sound and clip management, these little things are still the way to go. The Zoom H1 looks to be a great option, too: its slim profile makes it a great option for the on-the-go journalist or sample fiend, but it doesn’t appear to sacrifice sound quality — those are real mics on there.

I noted in my Canon T2i review that sound was (as it is on all DSLRs) pretty crappy. A pinhole mic recording in mono is a poor complement to the high-quality 1080p video; Zoom suggests using one of these suckers as your movie-making audio device, and I concur. As long as you can sync it correctly (just use the audio input, dummy) it could make for quite the mobile studio.

It records HQ audio (24-bit/96KHz, WAV or MP3) to MicroSD, and runs on a AA. I would say that I prefer an internal battery, but the fact is when you’re recording a show or talk, you don’t have the option of plugging the sucker in. The best part is it’s only $99. That’s a pretty good deal, if you ask me.


Please join us in welcoming Josephine Ann

Posted: 01 Jun 2010 02:43 PM PDT

Our good buddy and one of your favorite bloggers, Scott Merrill, just gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Josephine Ann. She’s 20 inches long (1.64631446 × 10-17 Parsecs) and weighs in at 7 pounds 2 ounces. According to Scott’s website “Baby and mom are doing great” which is better than “Baby and mom are being taken back to the V mothership.”

Congrats to Scott and his lovely wife!

UPDATE – Scott did not in fact “give birth.” His wife did. Thanks for the correction, Tad!

Study: Wikipedia actually pretty accurate (so calm down)

Posted: 01 Jun 2010 02:30 PM PDT

What’s the best site on the Web these days? Wikipedia, correct. Haters will hate, of course, pointing to this or that error, or highlighting high-profile compilations, but the spirit of the site endures: free and open information for all. Now a study has been published that says, you know what, on the whole, the information on Wikipedia isn’t any less accurate than you’ll find elsewhere. Does this mean, when writing a paper for you 12th grade history class, that you should ever have the site in your bibliography? No. No it does not. But to use the site as a stepping stone for further research? Absolutely, yes.

The study, carried out by researchers at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, says that the site is about as accurate as any published article you find in a peer-reviewed journal. The study specifically looked at Wikipedia pages on about cancer. The information turned out to be totally accurate, if only a little difficult to read. USA Today’s editors aren’t in charge of the site: the Wikipedia articles were said to be at a college-level reading level rather than a 9th grade reading level (found on PDQ, a professionally peer-reviewed Web site) That difference is due to the very nature Wikis: you’ve got a number of different people editing pages simultaneously, so naturally there chaos.

Whether you can extrapolate this information to other areas of the site, particularly those dealing with current events—you’ll notice that the page on the Gaza flotilla raid is semi-protected—I don’t know. It does, however, put to rest the idea that OMG WIKIPEDIA EVIL~!, an opinion usually put forward by someone who doesn’t know the difference between a Web browser and a driver.

The Viliv X10 Tablet surfaces at Computex, spotted running Android

Posted: 01 Jun 2010 02:00 PM PDT


Viliv is keeping the tablet love running with the X10 Tablet. The upcoming kit builds upon Viliv’s previous successful tablets, the S5 and X70. The X10 is entering the world now ruled by the iPad. The tablet marker is a bit different than when the other two models launched, but it looks like the Viliv X10 is ready to play with the big dog.

Laptop Magizine got a little face time with the X10 and walked away impressed. It seems both Android 2.2 and Windows 7 models will be available come launch time. Also, the 1366 x 768 16:9 screen powered by an ARM CPU displayed 720p content beautifully. An SD card reader, USB port, HDMI, front-facing webcam, and built-in 3G or WiMax completes the device. Can you say legitimate iPad alternative? I can.

Laptop couldn’t get a release date or projected price at Computex. I reached out to my Viliv contacts but have yet to hear back.

British forensic audio analysis tool has been passively monitoring London for five years

Posted: 01 Jun 2010 01:00 PM PDT


This isn’t really a gadget, but the technology on display is rather impressive, and it’s probably good to know about anyway, in case you make a lot of clandestine audio recordings. British scientists have determined a way to authenticate audio recordings (or prove they’ve been tampered with), by matching infinitesimal variations in the sound that correspond to variations in the power grid. They claim it’s the biggest advance in audio forensics since the analysis of the Watergate tapes.

The technology, called electrical network frequency analysis (ENF) was made possible largely by the move to digital recording in video and audio devices, which keeps perfect time — unlike analog devices, which suffer from microscopic changes in recording rate as the batteries get low, the device is jarred, or the tape reel runs out.

Digital recordings and their accurate timestamps allowed researchers to reliably detect in a given recording the tiny, tiny background noise created by the electrical grid; this pattern is then compared to a central pattern database, at which patterns from all over London are recorded and stored. If the patterns don’t match, or there are multiple patterns, it suggests tampering.

The slightly scary part: they’ve been making recordings of the grid patterns every one and a half seconds for the last five years. I mean, it’s not like they were covertly installing microphones in everyone’s bedrooms or anything, but it’s a little creepy to know that a sort of really grainy snapshot is being taken forty times a minute, wherever you are in the city.

It has already been used to resolve a few cases, so it’s proving its worth. It just… freaks me out a little.

CrunchGear and Dolby’s amazing post-holiday giveaway: Three HP Pavilion Laptops with Dolby Advanced Audio

Posted: 01 Jun 2010 12:15 PM PDT

Just when you thought things couldn’t get any better, we spring this on you. HP and Dolby would like to give you one of three HP Pavilion dv6t Select Edition laptops complete with Blu-Ray player and Dolby Advanced Audio. Here are the details:

To celebrate HP's recent launch of its new Pavilion laptops all of which include Dolby Advanced Audio for providing stunning audio, Dolby is giving away three Ultimate Dolby PC Entertainment Packages for enjoying surround sound entertainment. Included in each package:
· HP Pavilion dv6t Select Edition with Dolby Advanced Audio and Blu-ray playback
· The Hangover and Star Trek on Blu-ray featuring Dolby TrueHD loseless audio
· Magix Movie Edit Pro Plus with Dolby Digital 5.1 Creator – the ultimate tool for creating the perfect movies and videos
Dolby Advanced Audio gives new Pavilion users a personal surround sound experience with any set of headphones and will enhance their music, movies and games with a suite of technologies designed to provide the best listening experience from their PC.

What do you do to win? It’s so simple even a child to could do it.

Answer this question of the day: Why is having a high quality Dolby audio experience on a notebook important to you?

Answer in comments and leave your real email address (Facebook logins don’t really work). Enter once and only once from one IP address. We will pick one winner at random tomorrow at 5pm Eastern. We have three total to give away so don’t give up. The contest is limited to the US and Canada, sadly.

Sanyo Xacti DMX-CA100: World’s first waterproof full HD camcorder in action (video)

Posted: 01 Jun 2010 12:14 PM PDT

Sanyo last week announced the DMX-CA100 for the Japanese market, the world’s first waterproof full HD camcorder “for consumer use with optical zoom lenses” (Kodak has released a simpler model just recently). And now we can (courtesy of DigInfonews Tokyo) give you a video that shows the device in action.

The camera boasts an IPX8 waterproof rating so that it’s safe to use it underwater (up to 3m deep) for a full hour. It’s marketed by Sanyo as a “dual camera”, meaning you can use it to shoot full HD movies as well as to make 14MP pictures.

Buyers will get an 1/2.33 inch CMOS sensor, 5x optical zoom and Sanyo's proprietary "Double Range Zoom" function, which allows users to instantly switch between "Wide Mode" (40 mm to 240 mm) and "Tele Mode" (80 mm to 480 mm) with the push of a button (see graphic below).

The camera also features a 2.7-inch LCD, a USB 2.0 port, an SDXC port, and a mini HDMI interface. It’s also compatible to Eye-Fi, and comes with a digital image stabilizer and a “Face Chaser” function for videos.

Sanyo will start selling the DMX-CA100 in Japan at the end of this month in black, yellow, and pink (price: $440). International sales plans haven’t been announced yet.

Here’s the video:

Prince of Persia didn’t do too well at the box office (and critics didn’t like it either)

Posted: 01 Jun 2010 12:00 PM PDT


That hair is flowing, that’s for sure

After all that controversy, after all that hype, the Prince of Persia movie made only $30 million at the weekend. It was bested by Sex and the City 2, which, from what I understand, is pretty wretched. Nobody expected the movie to make Shrek-like money, but not beating rated R Sex and the City? Oh, dear.

I’m not usually a fan of aggregating movie or game review, primarily because reviews really ought to be read individually, but RottenTomatoes has the movie at 40/100. That’s really not very good, no.

The New York Post, in a negative review, said:

Prince of Persia got the go-ahead from an administration at Disney that was sent on its way last year. I wouldn't be surprised if their successors at the Mouse House wish they had a magic dagger that would allow them to go back and erase this movie.

And the Boston Globe called the movie “the CVS brand” of Lord of the Rings.

Meanwhile, the Dallas Morning News called it a “fun ride,” which is probably the fairest statement of all. Surely you’re not walking into the movie expecting a work of art? You’re there to kill two hours.


Junaio Augmented Reality browser comes to Android.

Posted: 01 Jun 2010 11:42 AM PDT

Augmented Reality is a technology I follow regularly as I think it is a potential mobile industry game changer. Lately, a company called Metaio has come to my attention. They are making great strides bringing AR out of its technological infancy with a series of software developments.

The first development to note is that starting today (June 1), Junaio - Metaio’s free Augmented Reality Browser for mobile devices – is available for download in the Android Market. It is already in the Apple App store.

The second is that this Junaio update marks the beginning of a new partnership with Kooaba , makers of image recognition software and the database of images behind it. Metaio is calling the new service, born out of this partnership, Junaio GLUE.

For the unfamiliar, Kooaba’s software allows users to take and submit images of objects to a centralized server, whereupon these images are identified using software and a result is returned. For example, a user could take a picture of a book itself (instead of merely the barcode on the book) and submit that image for decoding. The response could be the book title or other info.

This method of discovery represents a completely different take on identifying objects in the real world, compared to the swiftly developing format of tagging items with 2D barcodes. It also uses a much more complex system of software.

Metaio’s press release sums up the partnership with kooaba this way:

metaio's exciting new "augmented reality" browser junaio® has extended its capabilities beyond the usual location based internet services. Not only may the user obtain information on nearby POIs like shops, restaurants or train stations, but also the camera's eye is now able to identify objects and to "glue" object specific real-time, dynamic, social and 3D information onto the object itself. This unique feature is now being extended through collaboration with kooaba and its visual object search capability, providing access to kooaba's extensive object databases. Initially available on the Android version, an iPhone release will follow soon.

Using the proven metaio technology of image recognition and object tracking, junaio® is able to identify an object through the phone's camera, access object relevant information through visual search and then virtually "glue" such information displays onto the object itself, rendered in a way only metaio's famed augmented reality engine can achieve. By moving object or camera the user is able to intuitively interact with the "glued on" augmented reality layer in order to navigate through information, rotate 3D displays, issue game commands, provide feedback, etc.

The talking CD
As a first example users will be able to take any CD cover and access the related online information simply by pointing their smartphone at the CD. This service is available on junaio® within the kooaba channel. It allows the CD's specific information to be found through kooaba's advanced visual search capabilities and its extensive CD database. The user will then be able to see the CD internet page and customer ratings, the MySpace profile with its social features and sound examples, 3D animations related to the music category and last not least, find directions to an outlet or concert venue near him. junaio® then "glues" this information directly onto the camera image of the CD, thereby allowing the user to interact and navigate through these displays simply by rotating the CD.
Dr. Till Quack, kooaba´s CTO, says: "CDs are only the beginning. Our database is constantly growing. The visual search and live-rendering will be accessible for more and more services and products."

This partnership no doubt reveals the strategic importance Metaio places on the melding of traditional Augmented Reality features with advanced capabilities like Computer Vision. Indeed, when I recently asked Metaio Head of Marketing Noora Guldemond if her company was investing in image recognition/computer vision technologies, she cautiously noted they were on top of the concept. It turns out that they likely already had this partnership with Kooaba in place at that time.

So, I said that Metaio is attempting to bring Augmented Reality out of its technological infancy. Does this update graduate the concept to “Toddlerhood”? I don’t think it does just yet. My own tests of the Kooaba channel for Junaio were mixed. When I scanned the only physical CD I could find at my office (everyone uses iPod – that’s a whole different topic for conversation), it did accurately identify the CD. But I found the augmented controls for information, while interesting and whimsical (yes, that’s a little guy playing guitar on the Beatles CD cover), ultimately difficult to use unless movement was kept to an absolute minimum.  I think more UX work is in order for these AR overlays. That’s just my opinion though.

BUT

Whether or not this approach is a completely bullet-proof execution is not the point I am trying to make. These kind of concepts are undeniably important in our progression for interacting with data out in the real world! What I think is important to note here is what this partnership means in terms of the direction of the industry. While it may not seem like it on the surface, this little example of computer vision is a bold step. Object recognition and processing are incredibly complex. Just think about what really happens in our brains as we identify something as simple as a street sign while driving? We read or identify the symbol on the sign based on our past learned experiences and then decode that sign. Meanwhile, we may be moving at a high rate of speed or on multiple axes and there may also be other moving objects (cars, other signs) moving in front of or behind the sign as we are decoding it – there are many variables to consider and we take all this for granted. Imagine compensating for all of the possible variables and expressing that capability as a piece of software?

Therefore, I think this baby step in the direction of intelligent image recognition integrated with Augmented Reality displays is worth mentioning. What do you all think?
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