Section: Business News, Computers, Software / Applications, Web, Google
On April Fool’s Day, Google took the time to create a fake video, blog post and PDF for something called Gmail Motion. With Gmail Motion, users could control their Gmail accounts with an assortment of wacky gestures and a webcam. We mentioned how that reality isn’t too far fetched now that Kinect is out in the wild. As fate would have it, the team at the Institute for Creative Technologies has done just that. By using digital witchcraft and a Kinect sensor, Gmail Motion lives.
ICT uses what it calls Software Library Optimizing Obligatory Waving, or SLOOW, the turn Gmail into a needlessly complicated task. They used Google suggested gestures to open an email, type a brief reply message and sent it on its way. It worked quite well for something that started off as a joke.
Could Gmail motion be a useful application? Probably not. It’s simple enough as it is. But I can see this being used for web browsing and other software applications. Some Sony VAIO computers use motion gestures to control music and photos. That’ll suffice for now.
Check out the video of SLOOW in action.
Read [Engadget] Site [ICT]
Full Story » | Written by Jeremy Hill for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Section: Apple, Communications, Computers, Features, Originals, Columns, Who's On Crack
Welcome back after a short hiatus from the craziness. What's the most common phrase heard around the Gadgetell newsroom? Is it "I love tablets?",or "that's dope!" or "iPad!"? Answer: none of them, it's "they are on crack." This week we take a look back at the things that made us chuckle in the tech world. Assembled here are companies whose moves are so strange, we suspect some illegal substances are involved. Let's see how much of it was fueled by illegal drugs, I am edited to say allegedly, but we all know the truth. The accused:
Time Warner uses iPad to insult customer
Android kicking iPhone butt at Verizon
Windows Phone, same as it ever was
PlayBook full of bunk?
Time Warner show customers come 2nd
That’s right Time Warner customers, you’ve just been punked. Our Shawn Ingram reports, “because of complaints, Time Warner Cable is removing channels from Viacom, Fox and Discovery from the TWCable TV iPad app. ” Good bye channels like Comedy Central, Discovery Channel, MTV, and Nickelodeon. The complaints came from these content providers who believe Time Warner only has license to bring their stuff to one screen, your TV.
Oy this flat-world thinking is disheartening to say the least. Will we soon have the option to add on a “tablet package” so we can pay for having programming on two screens? Will we be one day able to buy just an iPad subscription? With the stations calling the shots, will TWC become just a pipe?
I don’t know about you, but locking TV to a big screen is a lot less attractive than an iPad subscription that we can plug into a TV (or even better AirPlay to the TV). TWC could lose big in this as we expect reduced prices for things iPad-ish. It’s time for TWC to man-up and get this issue to court to define what they can and can’t do.
ThunderBolt is an iPhone killer?
Finally, a phone bests the might Apple? According to our Editor, Robert Nelson, “one analyst has put forth a report showing that the HTC Thunderbolt is outselling the iPhone 4 at Verizon Wireless.” That’s right, the awkwardly named and marketed ThunderBolt was the phone we were all waiting for?
As we’ve seen before, one analyst does not make for fact. In fact, even the report is set up to get us to react. Nelson point this out at the end of his post, “why can't we mobile geeks just all get along?”
Are we concerned that Android is kicking some Apple behind? Should we find more stats to support the opposite argument (I am sure some analyst has a study that contradicts this data point)? No, no, we don’t need that.
We’re evolving. Sure you’ll find blogs filled with fanboys and girls, but in the real world, do you begrudge a friend based on their mobile choices? Or even an enemy? No. I think we’ve passed that immature comparison and one-up-manship.
Plus, Apple kick Android but up and down the street in apps. Suck on that Android-ees.
Window Phone some things just don’t change
What do Windows Phone users have in common with the pre-iPhone Windows Mobile gang? Everyone is waiting on an update. According to Robert Nelson again, “while we have seen T-Mobile begin rolling out the NoDo Windows Phone 7 update for the HTC HD7 and the Dell Venue Pro, it looks like AT&T users still have at least a few weeks to wait before their update arrives”
Here we go again. Are you kidding me? There is nothing more frustrating than watching others get something you can’t. T-Mobile users luck out while AT&T users groan. It’s 2004 all over again.
Didn’t Microsoft learn any-frickin-thing? Hold up, Android has this issue with skinned devices, BlackBerry has this, and now, even Apple has this. Hasn’t anyone learned anything? Give us one OS, across all carriers and update it all at once.
Is that too much to ask? If we can’t have the apparently impossible, then how about merging timelines so users don’t feel discriminated against.
PlayBook has the wrong plays
Could it be that the much anticipated BlackBerry PlayBook besides using more than its fair share of capital letters, will ship with no native mail or contacts app? From page 5 of an internal Verizon document,
O to the M to the flippin’ G. BlackBery, that coveted brand for turning execs into email junkies, has decided it’s mail app isn’t ready for primetime and will ship after the hardware. No big deal you say? Let’s compare some other products that flopped by launching without necessary functionality:
1977 Frigidare Homestud Fridge: didn’t actually cool anything.
1989 Zenith ER23423 TV: Only had access to Channel 9
1998 VW Jetta: electronic door lock mechanism wouldn’t open. Ever.
These products all failed miserably at launch. Is there any reason to suspect the PlayBook will follow a different, er, playbook? Even the Black Eyed Peas are now distancing themselves from the tablet…
Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
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