CrunchGear |  |
- Lost In Denmark: Hackers, Robots, Wacky Office Spaces And Sharks
- Review: Microsoft’s Touch Mouse And Explorer Touch Mouse
- Daily Crunch: Guard Tower
| Lost In Denmark: Hackers, Robots, Wacky Office Spaces And Sharks Posted: 04 Sep 2011 04:11 AM PDT  I spent the better part of last week hanging out with some fellow tech bloggers in Denmark – in Aarhus and Billund, to be more specific – and mingling with the people who organized and traveled to attend, speak or exhibit at the Next Aarhus ‘Beautiful Mistakes’ conference and exhibition. The conference in itself was really fascinating, though not exactly TechCrunch post material even if people working at AT&T, Google and Katalabs were on the speaker list. Topics ranged from biotechnology, "green" productification, sustainability and the reinvention of architecture to social media marketing, context-aware computing and the future of advertising. Terribly interesting stuff, but not quite the type of event I’ve grown used to attending. No startups pitching, no interviewing of or keynotes given by top-level executives from tech companies, no product launches. Awesome, in other words. They even featured a working wind turbine next to the stage, and brew their own arctic herbs-flavored beer for the event (meet Ale 404). When I was picked up from the airport by someone who works at Innovation Lab, the organization that put on the show, I asked him what the most exciting tech company or startup in Denmark was in his opinion. He had to think hard and ultimately couldn’t give me an answer aside from Navision (which is really a U.S. company since it was taken over by Microsoft) and Bang & Olufsen. Amazing, really. Also: get to work, Startupbootcamp Copenhagen! As a self-confessed geek, the accompanying exhibition was a real treat, though: hackers on the loose, a multitude of nifty robots, Lego bricks, an augmented reality-enhanced Sega OutRun arcade car capable of driving (must-see video right here), ancient technology artifacts – the works. Engadget’s managing editor, Darren Murph, posted two videos of some really cool robots if you’re into that. London-based design artist Vahakn Matossian also has a great photo set of the exhibition up on Facebook. These are some of the photos I shot: And here’s a video featuring Flemming, a hacker from Open Space Aarhus, showing neat stuff: Hackers, unite! As I mentioned, Next Aarhus is organized by Innovation Lab, an international knowledge center for new technology. They have an übercool office space north of Aarhus – I just had to take some pics: So what about the sharks you teased in the headline, you ask? Here you go:
The video above was shot in Legoland Billund. Visiting that theme park was such an amazing experience, however, that I just had to do a separate post about it. Coming up.
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| Review: Microsoft’s Touch Mouse And Explorer Touch Mouse Posted: 03 Sep 2011 09:00 AM PDT  I got a chance to play with two of Microsoft's three touch mouse offerings — the Explorer Touch Mouse and the flagship Touch Mouse — and as far as ideas go, they're absolutely wonderful. But in terms of execution, the whole “touch” part didn’t exactly impress. When compared to your standard desktop mouse, these two offerings from Microsoft could easily go toe-to-toe. But once we start getting into the touch capabilities of each — especially the Touch Mouse — things start getting a little shaky. Let’s take a look. Touch Mouse Features:
Pros:
Cons:
Long Version: As I said earlier, Microsoft’s Touch Mouse is a wonderful idea. I happen to favor a touchpad over a mouse on whatever machine I’m using — most regularly my MacBook Pro — and the notion that those same gestures could be found on a much more comfortable mouse got me excited. Unfortunately, things weren’t as seamless as I’d expected. The Touch Mouse offers a number of different touch-based gestures: a single finger scrolls, pans, and tilts, while a thumb swipe will send you backwards or forwards. Obviously, backwards or forwards can mean different things during different activities, but it’s basically the ability to push the back button or the forward button in your browser, or quickly scroll through PowerPoint presentations. Microsoft also added a flick to its single-finger gestures to allow for super speedy scrolling. This is where the Touch Mouse lost me. It really doesn’t perceive the difference between a slow, smooth scroll and a flick. I got sent to the bottom of the page too many times to count, and even the slow scroll (when recognized) wasn’t all that smooth. Plus, the mouse is actually just one large button, with sensors to detect whether you’re inputting a right or left click. When I hold a mouse, my middle finger (right clicker) nudges right up against that line, but since the Touch Mouse’s line doesn’t actually separate different buttons, it’s easy to miss. But the Touch Mouse has its great moments, too. The thumb gesture especially wowed me. Even though it made me feel awful for being too lazy to mouse over to the back button, I still used that gesture as much as possible. Whoever said laziness was a sin? Not Microsoft, that’s for sure. When I met with Microsoft to talk about the Touch Mouse, they used the word “delight” like a zillion times, most often connecting it with the word “control.” At the time, I didn’t fully understand what they were talking about. But after getting hands-on with the Touch Mouse, it really is an entirely new sense of control over your machine that is, in short, delightful. Again, the idea is fantastic. But until they can make those controls more reliable, it’s hard to recommend it. Explorer Touch Mouse: Features:
Pros:
Cons:
Long Version: The Explorer Touch Mouse is really more of a stripped down, less expensive version of the Touch Mouse. Instead of the whole front surface of the mouse being touch-capable, the Explorer features a touch strip right down the center, a bit like the Arc Touch Mouse. The strip lets you control vertical and horizontal scrolling, but as I mentioned before, it’s not the smoothest scrolling I’ve ever encountered. I can’t figure out whether or not it’s the actual mouse itself that isn’t providing a smooth scroll or if it’s the fact that my fingers always seem to stick on the touch strip. Just so we’re clear, I’ll go ahead and disclose that I don’t (repeat: do not) have unusually clammy hands or fingers. Something about the material that this little guy is made of makes it difficult to slide your fingers across it without sticking a bit. That’s not the case with the Touch Mouse, and I really don’t understand why Microsoft didn’t just use the same material (although that was probably a cost-cutting measure to maintain the lower price-point). One cool little feature that I really enjoyed was the tactile feedback this mouse gives. Obviously, a Microsoft mouse will always have that crisp click feedback for pressing the buttons, but what impressed me was the feedback from the touch strip. When you flick to scroll — and even on slower scrolls — the touch strip imitates the feeling of a scroll wheel found on most basic, totally uncool non-touch mice. It almost feels like there’s a scroll wheel directly below the touch strip, and you’re just feeling the vibrations as it spins along. Conclusion: So maybe the actual touch portion of these two mice wasn’t as amazing as I had hoped. But as far as your standard mice are concerned, these two have ‘em beat. When it comes to the every day, basic uses of a mouse, both the Microsoft Touch Mouse and The Explorer are excellent choices (aside from that whole right click vs. left click thing). I really meant it when I said they could perform on any surface. Trust me, I tried as many as I could find. Company: MICROSOFT Website: http://www.microsoft.com Launch Date: 4/4/1974 IPO: 13/3/1986, NASDAQ:MSFT Microsoft, founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, is a veteran software company, best known for its Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office suite of...
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| Posted: 03 Sep 2011 01:00 AM PDT  Here are some of yesterday’s stories on TechCrunch Gadgets:
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