CrunchGear |  |
- Video: Murata Shows Robotic Walking Aid / Shopping Cart
- Daily Crunch: Hearted
- Dear Apple, Please Make My iPhone 4S Battery Life Suck Less
- Bill Gates On “The Miracle Of Availability” And Applying Computer Science To The World
- Redbox Raises Price On Rentals To $1.20
- Microsoft Patents Manipulation Of 3D Virtual Objects, Throwing Gestures
- HP Reconsiders Spinning-Off PC Division, Personal Systems Group Will Remain Part Of The Company
- Metaio Adds Gravity To Their Augmented Reality Platform
- Nokia CEO Sees “Broader Opportunity” With Windows 8, Hints At Tablets
- Motorola’s New LTE-Packing DROID4 Caught On Film
- Gunnar Optiks Intros Glasses For The Call Of Duty Obsessed
- Video: This Bendable Remote Control Has No Buttons, Doesn’t Require Batteries
- Microsoft’s Vision Of The Future Includes Touch-Sensitive Everything (And Beautiful People Only)
- Video: This Electric Vehicle “Wears” Airbags For Ultimate Protection
- Jobs Biography Sells Out In China As Fans Clamor For Copies
- Nintendo Reports US$923 Million Loss In The First Half Of This Fiscal Year
- The 1% Will Love This Ostentatious Double iPad Case
- Garmin FR70 Fitness Watch Wants To Track Your Body, Doesn’t Care If You Train Inside Or Out
- Charted: Android Fragmentation
| Video: Murata Shows Robotic Walking Aid / Shopping Cart Posted: 28 Oct 2011 03:03 AM PDT  Japan-based Murata caused quite a splash in the tech world with their awesome unicycle humanoids a while back, and now the company is applying the robot technology used in those machines for something that’s not just entertaining to watch. The advanced balancing system in particular is what makes their newly developed “assistance car” so special. As you can see in the video embedded below, the car stands upright on its own without falling over. Thanks to the built-in power assist system, it just takes one finger to make it move forward or back “automatically”, making Murata think of turning the prototype into a walking aid, baby carriage, or some sort of shopping cart in the future. Diginfo TV‘s video (in English) shows the assistance car in action:
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| Posted: 28 Oct 2011 01:00 AM PDT  Here are some of yesterday’s Gadgets stories: Microsoft Patents Manipulation Of 3D Virtual Objects, Throwing Gestures Gunnar Optiks Intros Glasses For The Call Of Duty Obsessed Microsoft's Vision Of The Future Includes Touch-Sensitive Everything (And Beautiful People Only) Charted: Android Fragmentation
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| Dear Apple, Please Make My iPhone 4S Battery Life Suck Less Posted: 27 Oct 2011 10:46 PM PDT  I think I figured out what the “S” stands for in the iPhone 4S. Now, to be clear, I love my new iPhone 4S. I talk to it even when there isn’t a human on the other end of the line. Sometimes it talks back. But one thing that literally sucks about my iPhone 4S is its battery life. And I’m not the only one complaining. Today, my iPhone died after about 8 hours—not even enough to get me through a full day without recharging (and this is typical). This was not 8 hours of constant use (unless you count the constant pinging of notifications, which may be the culprit). It was 8 hours total from the time I unplugged it in the morning and took it with me until the screen went black at around 4 PM. According to the specs, the iPhone 4S is supposed to get 200 hours of standby time, 8 hours of talk time, and “up to 6 hours” of Internet use on 3g. During the day, I made half a dozen calls less than 5 minutes each, used the Internet for an hour on the train (email, Twitter, light Web browsing), and then maybe another 90 minutes throughout the day. So that comes to a total of 2.5 hours of Internet usage and 30 minutes of phone calls. The rest, in my mind, is all standby. Except maybe it isn’t since the phone is constantly bleeping with notifications and emails. And that may very well be the problem. There are many theories out there, but the ones which ring true to me are that notifications and location-based apps are the big battery drains. The iPhone 4S has a really great new notification center where you can see recent notifications from all your apps with an always0available pull-down screen. I have about a dozen apps that feed into that notification center, including Facebook, Twitter, Yammer, Skype, Google+, Foursquare Instagram and text messages. I have an equal number with location-based services turned on. Sure, I could turn these off and I probably will. But what’s the point of having a state of the art mobile computer in your pocket if you have to disable its best features? No, what I’d like instead is for Apple to fix this mess. I don’t know how, perhaps through an update or new rules imposed on app developers. Maybe limit the number of times an app can ask for a location update when it is dormant. Or if notifications are the problem, make it easier to manage which notification you get by app. I don’t need to know every time somebody likes one of my Instagram photos or tries to add me as a friend on Facebook or Foursquare. I could cut out more than half of my notifications—and maybe a big chunk of the battery drain—if there were better granular controls to mute the noise. Better yet if there is a technical solution Apple can impose and I don’t have to do anything. Battery life is one of those things you don’t notice until you don’t have it anymore. And I’m noticing it big time. The iPhone 4 will be offered in the US by AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint. Product specs: Dual-core A5 CPU, said to be "2x as fast at CPU tasks" Dual-core graphics, up to "7x faster than the previous iPhone" Battery life estimates: 8 hours talk time on 3G, 14 hours on 2G. 6 hours of browsing on 3G, 9 on Wi-Fi. 10 hours of video playback, 40 hours of music. Theoretical download speeds of 14.4Mbps (as opposed to 7.2 on the iPhone 4.) World Phone... Started by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, Apple has expanded from computers to consumer electronics over the last 30 years, officially changing their name from Apple Computer, Inc. to Apple, Inc. in January 2007. Among the key offerings from Apple’s product line are: Pro line laptops (MacBook Pro) and desktops (Mac Pro), consumer line laptops (MacBook) and desktops (iMac), servers (Xserve), Apple TV, the Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server operating systems, the iPod (offered with...
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| Bill Gates On “The Miracle Of Availability” And Applying Computer Science To The World Posted: 27 Oct 2011 07:13 PM PDT  Bill Gates just gave a talk at the University of Washington’s School of Computer Science and Engineering. As is typical of his talks, this one was broadly focused on new and helpful implementations of technology. It was followed by an open Q&A session. There was nothing radical or new proposed or revealed, but Gates was smart and compelling as usual, and the highlights of the talk are below. Video of the talk should be available soon from UW. I’ve tried to directly quote Bill as much as possible (bolded for those hungry for sound bytes), but there may be small errors in phrasing. If it’s in quotes, it’s his words, though I may need to correct a few words here or there. “Maybe I’d have been more rounded if there weren’t as many books around”Gates began by establishing his computer science credibility, not that it’s necessary at this point, by reminiscing about the early days of computing. He recalled that at UW, “at strange hours you could essentially break in and steal computer time,” on the batch-work computers of the day like the B5500. This served as a segue, actually, to his initial thesis, which was that people like himself aren’t the ones who will bring be making the next generation of breakthroughs happen. He cited the incredible amount of storage and its almost negligible cost, and how as someone who grew up with kilobytes and megabytes, he simply isn’t ideologically suited for allocating terabytes and petabytes. But people who have grown up with it do things like, for example, suggest that every lecture at a university be recorded and stored. Once he got past the prejudice of someone who wants to save every byte, he said he thought “it’s actually kind of absurd that we’re not doing that.” The big advance, Gates said, is “the miracle of availability.” This is the change that happens when something goes from being a device owned by the elite and wealthy of the world to being something utilizable by the poorest. An example given later was the sophisticated GPS-driven combines used on US farms. Ingenious, but can you build one that an African village can afford? As a further example, he showed off an application using the Kinect which I actually highlighted back in August. Not that it would be useful to a starving child, but there is a huge potential just waiting to be unlocked, as Microsoft Research and innumerable hackers have shown for the Kinect and other devices. “Many problems in society are just poorly designed algorithms”Gates praised alternative models for education, showing off a program for teaching algebra that actively monitored how the student was doing, what methods of teaching worked, and adjusted the lessons on the fly. We saw some other ideas along this line with the Imagine K12 companies, which I’m sure Gates would appreciate if he is not already aware of them. He also spoke in glowing terms of Khan Academy, which we’ve featured here quite often. But, as he later elaborated during the Q&A session, it’s not meant to be a substitute for learning institutions. “As you go from Kindergarten to college, hopefully the need for adult supervision goes down somewhat, but there’s still a need for guidance.” He noted that some 20 schools had completely reorientated their curricula around Khan Academy and similar services, with the teacher assigning the lectures and quizzes to be watched on the student’s own time, and then using the classroom not as a lecture hall, but as a discussion platform that added context, clarified points, and offered more one on one time for students who couldn’t grasp the material. As for adding computer science to the curriculum as early as elementary school, he was skeptical: “I think the computer is a great tool and you should use it as much as you can. But hash tables and database indexes, I don’t know where that would come in… It’s hard to say anything is necessary in the curriculum. Personally, I’d have more people take statistics than calculus.” But though he spoke lightly of it, he really considers education one of the highest priorities. When asked how he felt about political discourse and the concentration of wealth, he responded that, to put things in perspective, “the number of people in abject poverty is the lowest in history.” But that said, “It’s not good to have a society where you don’t have mobility between different income levels. If you really look where we’re letting people down as far as the American dream… it would be that we are not providing enough education.” Without proper education, how can people make rational choices in day to day life, to say nothing of the issues voters face? “One thing I’m worried about is complexity. We can’t talk directly about the issues, so we talk about personalities.” When the most controversial bill of a political era (Obama’s health care bill) is over four thousand pages long and totally unreadable by the average voter, how is that effective? “I like hash tables and I dislike malaria”He then moved on to the question of poverty and disease. His primary insight came when he was working with researchers to create a stochastic model of “one of my reactors.” It was immensely complicated but the computing power at their disposal made it possible. He thought, if we can model a reactor, with all these forces and materials, why can’t we model disease, including the mosquitos, the people, the environment, the solutions? So they worked at it and eventually came up with an immensely complex model for disease vectors, weather, vaccines, life cycles, seasons, and everything else. They compared it with real statistics and it checked out. He said with confidence: “The world effort to get rid of malaria will be based on this model.” And the modeling approach to problems, now that we have the computing power to simulate the world with some precision, is just as important to apply elsewhere. Whether it’s malaria, polio, crops, nuclear reactors, sanitation, or education, “it makes you so much more rational in terms of what you do.” He demonstrated a few applications of the model and explained quite a bit about the disease itself and some of its history. But you can learn about malaria on your own time. “It’s the same hamburger”On the topic of wealth, something in which he must be considered something of an expert, he downplayed the money thing. One questioner asked for advice on getting as rich as him. He took this slightly tactless question in stride, saying that he never intended to become extremely wealthy, and that it was more important to do something you were interested in. He also said that while he understood the drive to make a few million dollars, a level of wealth that provides “meaningful freedoms,” after that amount, “it’s still the same hamburger. Dick’s hasn’t raised their prices enough…” This raised a laugh from the audience, who are probably all too familiar with this local Seattle burger joint. “All you’re trying to do is put stuff on your eye”When asked what might come after the change from PC to laptop to smartphone, he was animated: “We’re going to look back and laugh that we had these big glass screens, and if you drop it, it breaks… all you’re trying to do is put stuff on your eye!” As in, it’s just a way of getting information from the world into your brain, via your eyes. He suggested that projection directly onto the retina was likely the next big step, or alternatively a flexible screen of adjustable size. Lastly, the host noted that it would be Bill’s birthday tomorrow (the 28th), and invited Bill Gates Sr. up on stage, who held a cupcake with a candle for the younger Bill to blow out. If you’re interested in the continuing adventures of Bill Gates, you can keep up with him at The Gates Notes.
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| Redbox Raises Price On Rentals To $1.20 Posted: 27 Oct 2011 03:47 PM PDT  This will not end well. Redbox, in position to be the cheap, local, easy alternative to the confusing, troublesome Netflix, has decided to raise its rates to $1.20 per day. I guess they wanted a piece of Netflix’s humble pie. Coinstar, the company that owns the Redbox brand and boxes, explained it this way: “The change is primarily due to the increase in operating expenses, including the recent increase in debit card interchange fees as a result of the Durbin Amendment.” And naturally, that cost should be passed right back onto their loyal customers. I can’t help but editorialize here. It’s just hard to think of a more wrongheaded and shortsighted decision for them to make. Here they have a strong brand built on thrift and a major competitor being laid low by an untimely and confusing rate change. If they plan on being in business for more than a couple years, maintaining the $1 pricing is essential. Why not take another tack? Renegotiate contracts with grocery stores and bodegas where the Redbox machine arguably brings in business. Slim the margins elsewhere so you can afford the hit. Or just charge an extra quarter on debit card transactions, and give the customer an option to select a different payment method. Anything but reneging on the deal that made the brand known in the first place. Netflix lost 800,000 subscribers, and many more have been dissuaded from ever joining. But it’s not an instantaneous change, and Redbox needed to make a soft landing for them, not act with the same entitlement that Bank of America did in passing on the debit fees to customers. People are leaving that bank in record numbers, and I don’t see how Redbox can expect anything different.
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| Microsoft Patents Manipulation Of 3D Virtual Objects, Throwing Gestures Posted: 27 Oct 2011 02:22 PM PDT  Another batch of Microsoft patent applications have trickled into public view, and these ones may be even cooler than the last bunch. They describe “flinging gestures,” interaction with 3D virtual objects, and even throw it back a bit to describe a new email view format. Let’s take a look, shall we? Grasp Simulation Of A Virtual ObjectApplied for back in April of 2010, this patent application outlines something strikingly similar to some of the technology we saw in Microsoft’s video portraying their version of the future. It describes user input on a 2D surface, which is then simulated as direct contact with a virtual 3D object. Said virtual 3D object is meant to move or be manipulated based on the user’s physical input. In the video from this morning, users were able to input gestures without ever touching the device, as shown when the traveling businesswoman draws a heart into thin air, which is then translated onto the screen and relayed back to her kitchen wall. Perhaps this patent is a bridge between what we have now and Microsoft’s envisioned future, but either way I hope this one makes it to reality. Changing Power Mode Based On Sensors In A DeviceThe next patent application on our list was filed for much more recently — in July of this year — and is basically meant to make it easier for us to turn on handheld computing devices. You know, since pushing a button is too strenuous. The patent outlines a way to power on a device, whether it be a mobile phone or a tablet (or any computing device you can hold, really), by holding said device in portrait orientation. The patent discusses certain specifications that must be met in order for the function to work, like the degree at which the device must be held, or the amount of time the device must be held that way before it powers on. We’re glad to see it, too, as it would be totally annoying for a tablet to turn on each time it was in portrait orientation. The patent also covers a device that can perform this magical portrait boot action, along with the method by which one would do so. Way to cover your bases, Microsoft. Email ViewsThis April 2010 patent application is a bit old-school, or at least it feels that way compared to a day full of both lofty and modest future predictions. But it may make my least favorite mode of communication — and MG’s least favorite thing ever — just a bit more bearable. The patent describes a way of formatting your email view into different categories, rather than a list of names and subjects. The system would interpret the content of emails, and filter them into certain categories, like from friends, from family, videos and images, documents, invitations, and missed IMs. From there, the user has multiple interface options through which they can view their inbox in varying layouts. The technology described is in no way revolutionary — Google’s been combing your email content to target ads for years, and their Priority Inbox is pretty similar, too — but it may add a little “delight” to the email experience, which is something Microsoft seems to aim for. Throwing Gestures For Mobile DevicesDon’t let the title of this patent application fool you — there will be no phone throwing over at Microsoft, or anywhere else hopefully. Applied for in July, the “Throwing Gestures” patent describes a way of jerking your phone around to perform certain actions, including switching from one image to the next and closing applications. Like the “Changing Power Modes Based On Sensors In A Device” patent, Microsoft has also included a device which would use this technology. Unfortunately, Microsoft didn’t include any images of the actual flinging motion in its patent application, so that’ll have to be one for our imaginations to figure out. I imagine people walking down the street waving their phones around like they’re throwing frisbies, but I guess that’s no stranger than the masses of people now having conversations with their brand new iPhones. Note that these are only applications and have not been granted as yet. 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 productivity software. Starting in 1980 Microsoft formed a partnership with IBM allowing Microsoft to sell its software package with the computers IBM manufactured. Microsoft is widely used by professionals worldwide and largely dominates the American corporate market. Additionally, the company has ventured into hardware with consumer products such as the Zune and...
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| HP Reconsiders Spinning-Off PC Division, Personal Systems Group Will Remain Part Of The Company Posted: 27 Oct 2011 01:13 PM PDT  HP caused a minor uproar when it announced just prior to Leo Apotheker’s departure that it was considering splitting off its PC division. Well, after two months of internal debating, the Personal Systems Group will remain part of the company and Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard can rest in peace. The news comes from a just-issued press release where HP’s new chief MG Whitman indicated that it’s best for customers, partners, shareholders and employees (so everyone) to keep the PSG within HP. She goes on to say that "HP is committed to PSG, and together we are stronger." The announcement in August came as a shock. As detailed in today’s press release, HP is currently the number one manufacturer of personal computers in the world and saw $40.7 billion in revenues last year. HP has always been a hardware company first and the thought upon review of then-CEO Leo Apotheker was that HP was headed down a route to services and enterprise. But a few short weeks after the announcement which also killed off webOS hardware development, HP’s board ousted Apotheker who was replaced by Meg Whitman. Now that the Personal Systems Group is staying part of HP, the board of directors feels that it can “drive profitable growth” and assist other parts of HP’s business. Members of the PSG should start feeling the love again as HP stated that the PSG is part of HP’s strategy to consumers and enterprise customers alike. I bet they felt a different feeling the last two months. Meg Whitman, is the former CEO and Board Chairman of eBay. She resigned in March of 2008. In September of 2009, she announced her official candidacy for governor of California. On September 22nd, Hewlett-Packard (HP) announced that she has been hired to by the Board of Directors to become CEO and President of the global PC maker. Leading eBay from 1998 to 2008, Meg helped the company grow from 30 employees and a little over $4 million...
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| Metaio Adds Gravity To Their Augmented Reality Platform Posted: 27 Oct 2011 12:44 PM PDT  German augmented reality firm Metaio showcased some updates to their core technologies today at this year's ISMAR conference in Basel, Switzerland. The company is documenting this update with out-takes from some highly technical white papers and also, thankfully, with a few video demonstrations (for the algorithm-ly challenged out there – like me). The basic gist of this update to their core augmented reality capability is that the company have been able to create AR technology advancements on 3 fronts:
No big deal right? We have seen gravity and occlusion effects in video games for years? And the Microsoft demo we posted last week easily and elegantly demonstrates gravity and occlusion with regard to augmented virtual objects. The reason I find significance in this update from Metaio is that the kind of tracking they have been able to create is being done in real time, in variable lighting and multiple environments. They are able to provide this gravity-sensitive AR image tracking outside of a single, closed or completely controlled space which increases the potential for use in the real world. There is some pretty serious math involved, so check out the white papers when they eventually post at metaio.com for more detail. If you are like me, just watch the videos and smile at the shiny objects. I was able to see a preview of the occlusion capability while at the insideAR conference in Munich in September, so check out my own companion video to see how they are using the Kinect to map depths and occlude virtual objects. For more info see the official press release
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| Nokia CEO Sees “Broader Opportunity” With Windows 8, Hints At Tablets Posted: 27 Oct 2011 12:33 PM PDT  In a brief interview with This Is My Next, Nokia CEO (and mole for Microsoft, clearly) Stephen Elop hinted strongly at the potential for a Nokia-built Windows 8 tablet. While his statement was, strictly speaking, more of a dodge, it’s clear that this is something they’re at least thinking about. When asked about its role as a consumer electronics brand, Elop explained:
The topic of the conversation was largely the idea of a strongly-branded, unified user experience, which Elop feels Android doesn’t offer and Windows Phone 7 does (the iPhone didn’t come up, though it would probably fall under the unified category). So when he says Windows 8 is a supercharged Lumia experience, what he is suggesting is that the Windows 8 tablet experience is one catering to its exact use scenario, being less generalist and indeed less customizable than, say, Android. He also mentioned the importance of HTML5, and noted that the Lumia series was just part of a larger portfolio of devices and launches they’ll be doing through early 2012. I’m looking forward to it — they seem to be onto something with their new designs and with luck they’ll be able to turn that into market share. As for Windows 8, there’s still plenty of time for that situation to evolve, so let’s not speculate too broadly.
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| Motorola’s New LTE-Packing DROID4 Caught On Film Posted: 27 Oct 2011 09:36 AM PDT  Motorola fans may still be riding high on the announcement of the Droid RAZR, but Droid-Life has just gotten their hands on images of yet another Motorola handset in the works: the DROID4. The DROID4 apes some of the RAZR’s industrial design (like the funky corners and non-removable battery), but it sadly isn’t quite as svelte thanks to the spacious slide-out five row keyboard. Like its direct predecessor, the DROID4 also sports a 4-inch display, although new additions like an LTE radio and the ability to sync to the MotoACTV fitness device manage to set it apart from previous models. In addition to all that fun stuff, it also packs a few of the things we’ve begun to take for granted in our high-end smartphones: a front-facing camera, HDMI output, and the ability to shoot 1080p video. If the four discrete soft keys haven’t given it away yet, the DROID4 doesn’t yet run ICS — it’s reportedly stuck on Android 2.3.5. This may come as bad news for Motoheads hoping for a taste of Ice Cream Sandwich sooner rather than later, but it makes sense considering the DROID4 is looking nearly ready to ship. It’s even got an introductory decal plastered on the screen, which leads me to believe it has a decent shot of hitting shelves before Christmas. Given the pace at which Motorola seems to be churning these things out, I’m seriously wondering if their engineers have time to sleep.
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| Gunnar Optiks Intros Glasses For The Call Of Duty Obsessed Posted: 27 Oct 2011 08:44 AM PDT  With the new Call of Duty game hitting shelves soon, Gunnar Optiks has released a limited edition pair of Modern Warfare 3 gaming glasses that promise to please the eyes of even the most obsessed gamers. Well, that’s the claim, anyway. You see, Gunnar Optiks peddles special glasses meant for people who find themselves in front of screens all day. They’re said to reduce eye strain by filtering out artificial light, and their gaming-specific models are designed to keep players in the game for even longer than usual. Sounds perfect for those all-night frag sessions, right? Skeptics may balk (I know I did), but TechCrunch has looked into Gunnar Optiks in the past and came away rather impressed. For their MW3 edition specs, Gunnar Optiks went with what they call a “fighter”-inspired design, complete with a Call of Duty logo embossed in the frames. The glasses also come with a Call of Duty-branded pouch and carrying case, just to prove how hardcore you are. The entire package will set you back $99, but the bigger is question is whether or not the game-related swag is worth a $20 premium over the more traditional models. I’ll leave that up to you to decide, but I’m fairly certain some players are already chomping at the bit for these things.
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| Video: This Bendable Remote Control Has No Buttons, Doesn’t Require Batteries Posted: 27 Oct 2011 08:41 AM PDT  We’ve shown you the "Leaf Grip Remote Controller" a few weeks ago, but its maker, Japanese tech company Murata, decided to wait until the CEATEC 2011 exhibition to present it to the public. The device can theoretically be used for a number of applications, but Murata is pitching it first and foremost as a remote control for TV sets. The Leaf Grip Remote Controller lets users change channels with a twisting motion while the volume can be adjusted by bending it. Shake the device, which doesn’t require batteries to work, to turn the TV on or off. Murata explains:
This video – in English – shows how the remote control works (video provided by Diginfo TV, Tokyo):
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| Microsoft’s Vision Of The Future Includes Touch-Sensitive Everything (And Beautiful People Only) Posted: 27 Oct 2011 07:43 AM PDT  No one knows what the future will look like, but it’s always fun to guess, right? Microsoft has an entire position dedicated to the task, titled “Director of Envisioning,” which is held by David Jones. In an interview with GeekWire, he claimed that the future holds “an expanded definition of productivity where it's not just about getting things done. It's also about doing the right things, and doing them well and enjoying the process with other people in a very natural way." And that’s just what the sequel to Microsoft’s “Office 2019” video shows. In the video (below), Microsoft paints a world inhabited only by beautiful people, in which smartphones are about the size of a business card, and just about any surface you come into contact with has a touch-sensitive interface. Everyone is also wearing the same clothes as we do today, which is curious but comforting all the same. The video shows cloud connections as the primary form of content transference, whether that be from a phone to a book-like tablet, or from a tablet to the kitchen table. Interestingly, the “phone” type device (which no one actually speaks on throughout the whole video) sports a “live tile” interface very similar to the current Windows Phone Mango platform. There’s not a shred of paper in the video, which is bad news for the print industry should Redmond’s vision come to fruition. But on the whole, I wouldn’t mind living in Microsoft’s world in the next five to ten years. 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 productivity software. Starting in 1980 Microsoft formed a partnership with IBM allowing Microsoft to sell its software package with the computers IBM manufactured. Microsoft is widely used by professionals worldwide and largely dominates the American corporate market. Additionally, the company has ventured into hardware with consumer products such as the Zune and...
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| Video: This Electric Vehicle “Wears” Airbags For Ultimate Protection Posted: 27 Oct 2011 07:20 AM PDT  A Japanese company called Humanix [JP], in cooperation with Hiroshima University, has developed a small electric car that “wears” airbags on the body. I am not really sure if the result can be called pretty, but Humanix is claiming that (perhaps rightfully) their ”iSAVE-SC1” is the “safest electric vehicle in the world”. The three-wheeled car offers enough room for three people and comes with inflated airbags on the front and rear, while the body is covered with tent cloth. Upon collision, the idea is that the air released from the bags will soften the impact. The iSAVE-SC1 reaches a top speed of about 50km/h and can be charged using conventional 100V power plugs. Humanix is planning to sell the first cars in November (in Japan only) for US$10,400 before starting “mass-production” sometime next year. The company also set up a US unit in April this year in San Francisco. This video is from last year, but you’ll get the idea:
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| Jobs Biography Sells Out In China As Fans Clamor For Copies Posted: 27 Oct 2011 06:37 AM PDT China is serious about Jobs-mania. All 250,000 copies of the book are sold out in the country and folks lined up before bookstores opened just to get copy. Considering publishers already faked the bio, it’s clear that their love of Steve is still strong. MICGadget has a full photo gallery of the launch including a number of delightful sculptures made entirely of copies of the bio. How hardcore are these folks? Some choice quotes:
Heady stuff, to be sure. I’ll try to grab some shots of the scrum when I land in Beijing tonight.
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| Nintendo Reports US$923 Million Loss In The First Half Of This Fiscal Year Posted: 27 Oct 2011 06:22 AM PDT  Not too long ago, Nintendo was printing money every month after landing two hardware smash hits in a row, the Wii and the DS. But these times are now over, it seems. The company posted their financial report [PDF] for the first six months of their fiscal year (which ends in March 2012) today, and it has registered a loss of US$923 million. To put things into perspective, the minus for the same time frame in last fiscal was just US$26 million, but the number is at least better than the US$1.3 billion The Nikkei yesterday predicted for Nintendo’s earnings call. Revenue dropped by 41% to US$2.83 billion. The company is blaming the strong yen and rapidly shrinking 3DS sales (both hardware and games) for the bad numbers. What’s even worse is that Nintendo is now projecting a loss of US$264 million for the fiscal through March 2012, which would be the first annual minus since big N started reporting its numbers in 1981.
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| The 1% Will Love This Ostentatious Double iPad Case Posted: 27 Oct 2011 05:51 AM PDT Can’t get your Angry Birds done on just one iPad? Are you what would be commonly termed “a Bluetooth-toting dbag?” Do you think you’re more important than most people? Do your co-workers (or employees) hate you? Here’s the double iPad case of your dreams. Made by a small case manufacturer, ZooGue, the double iPad case is launching tomorrow and should be the toast of the country club come Monday. After all, you can’t GTL if you’re not connected to your homies back at the home office on your two red-hot iPads! No price yet, but if I were ZooGue I’d add a certain premium for the man – or woman – who has it all and wants just a titch more. Slap some Ed Hardy art on there and you’ve got a trifecta.
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| Garmin FR70 Fitness Watch Wants To Track Your Body, Doesn’t Care If You Train Inside Or Out Posted: 27 Oct 2011 05:32 AM PDT  It’s all about the data. The just-announced Garmin FR70 Fitness Watch doesn’t care where you’ve been or where you’re going. It only cares about your body while you’re going there. Despite coming from Garmin, the FR70 doesn’t have GPS. It only tracks and monitors the body’s vitals and then presents this info in a coherent fashion through Garmin’s online service making this a fine watch for indoor or outdoor training. The FR70 is fully compatible with ANT+ devices such as heart rate monitors, foot pods, and even ANT+ comptible stationary fitness equipment. It records everything from speed to distance to the run cadence. There’s even an optional speed/cadence bike sensor that also works with indoor trainers. Once this data is collected, plug the watch into a computer and the info is uploaded to Garmin Connect for easy tracking. This model is the latest in Garmin’s line of fitness watches but hits with a lot lower cost of admission. Available in November, FR70 will cost $129, which is $70 less than the FR60 was when it was first announced. However, now that the FR60 is only $99, you might want to save your $30. The new FR70 can hook up with the Tanita BC-1000 body-composition platform for six point body measurement tracking. That’s for the crazies. For the rest of us that just want some personal accountability (and maybe a new gadget) the older model seems just fine, too. Garmin is a producer of GPS devices.
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| Charted: Android Fragmentation Posted: 27 Oct 2011 03:45 AM PDT  Michael DeGusta has done an amazing job charting the fragmentation of Android by visualizing the history of operating system updates on Android smartphones for sale in the United States. Compare this to iPhone updates (which DeGusta did), and it paints a telling picture. Writes DeGusta:
I don’t want to steal the guy’s thunder by reblogging the whole thing, so go check out his chart and solid analysis of what’s going on DeGusta’s Tumblr blog. Company: Android Website: android.com In July 2005, Google acquired Android, a small startup company based in Palo Alto, CA. Android’s co-founders who went to work at Google included Andy Rubin (co-founder of Danger), Rich Miner (co-founder of Wildfire), Nick Sears (once VP at T-Mobile), and Chris White (one of the first engineers at WebTV). At the time, little was known about the functions of Android other than they made software for mobile phones. This began rumors that Google was planning to enter...
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