Once again, Macworld Expo is looming, are we are hustling to put on a good show. Get a FREE PASS and come see us at booth number S-845 (in the main hall, towards the left, on the side opposite the entrance). We'll be giving away T-shirts all day long, as well as a free iPod every day of macworld Expo!
In the future, you will find my blog posts at techrestore.com/blog, along with the with some other great voices within our rapidly growing company. The Future Shock blog will remain online, to facilitate access to our archives, while we evolve into something bigger and better!
One of the remarkable things about technology, is seeing the unique uses that end users devise for their gadgets. Digital camera technology facilitated JK Keller's unique self-portrait. A time-lapse animation showing one photo per day for eight years, documents his changing style and eventual lapse into lazy hippiedom. It's actually a pretty amazing video.
In other news, Future Shock will be getting a new name and some new contributors in 2008. Stay tuned to see what the future holds, as we evolve into an even better blog!
Many of today's web sites are applications in their own right and, in spite of the fact that we use them that way, we still have to access them through bookmarks in our browser. As if that weren't annoying enough, the browser's unnecessary toolbars eat up precious screen real estate. Site specific browsers (or SSBs), like Fluid, change all of that. Not only does it enable you launch Google Maps through an icon on your dock, it also runs as a stand-alone application that won't close just because your browser crashed while you were browsing the web! Welcome to the era of online software.
This Week's Future Shock Special
To help with your holiday shopping, take $10 off any order over $100, until next Friday, with coupon code: FSAV
MPK Co. is developing a new glow in the dark paint that doesn't need to be 'charged up' by light. Instead, encapsulated radioactive isotopes glow all the time! Phosphor micro-spheres around the tritium particles keep the beta radiation from escaping, while allowing visible light through, 24/7, for up to 12 years. Litroenergy paints are not yet listed for sale on their site, though you can currently purchase conventional light-charging glow in the dark paints in spray cans, tubes or powdered pigments.
Blog posts have been few and far between lately. With so much preparation to do for Macworld Expo, in January, every extra minute counts. One of the things that I've been working on is the T-shirts that we will be giving out at the show. Above is a mock-up of how they will look.
Next time you pass by the bank parking lot, after hours, expect to see more than the usual skaters doing rail-slides. Thanks to The Flybar, pogo sticks are back - in a big way. Designed by Andy Macdonald, an eight time world cup skateboard champion, the virtually silent Flybar can get you up to 4 feet of air! Naturally, you have to see the video.
This Week's Future Shock Special
Free Shipping on any order over $100, until next Friday, with coupon code: SHIPFS
YouTube and Flickr are great, but where do you go to see the photos that were never supposed to have been taken? No museum, factory or government office is exempt from photo documentation at Strictly No Photography. A mere sign banning photography can't hold back the eyes of the internet. Potentially, this outlaw site could be a good source for politically sensitive images or trade secrets but, for the moment, it's strength lies in making art accessible to all. Since most museums forbid photography, art students are traditionally limited to books, postcards and travel to gain art exposure. However, this site allows people to view even the most recent or obscure works, as long as someone else has .
The new personal genetics company, 23 and Me, offers to profile your DNA and send you a complete report. Included in these DNA dossiers is detailed information on the presence of genetic disease, probabilities for having genetically related ailments as well as your ancient ancestry and relation to famous individuals. For a thousand dollars, you can look into your own source-code and, if you get your parents tested at the same time, your report results will be even more detailed.
For those of you who have keychains that were created on systems older than OS 10.2.8, and subsequently fail to be recognized after your Leopard upgrade, check out Apple's simple keychain fix - it works instantly!
If you use Synergy to share input devices between multiple machines, it will still work, but only in foreground mode (using the -f option on both client and server). Also beware that your computer's host name may have changed, so your config file may need to be updated. To find out what name your machine currently uses, type "hostname" in a Terminal window.
Leopard is a fantastic upgrade but, if you want to know what's lies just around the corner in UI development, check out the BumpTop. It's a 3D operating system interface that extends the metaphor of the desktop using realistic motion physics. Users can toss around or crumple icons, like they were sheets of paper on a desk. The stacking and re-ordering functions are pretty slick too. Check out the video to see BumpTop in action.
Illinois based Federal Signal Corp, has developed a subsonic siren for police use. Designed to get the attention of nearby motorists and pedestrians, the Rumbler accompanies an ordinary siren with matching low frequency sound waves that you can feel as well as hear. This way, people wearing iPods, those listening to loud music in their vehicle, or people with hearing impairments will all be aware of the emergency signal. Psychologically, the Rumbler adds another layer of intimidation to the array of lights and sounds that already makes police vehicles seem like UFOs. Welcome to the future. No that's not an earthquake, just the cops. Check out this video to get some idea of how the rumbler works with a regular siren (though you're not likely to get the full effect unless you have a pretty massive subwoofer connected to your computer).
This Week's Future Shock Special
$10 off any PSP service, until next Friday, with coupon code: P10FS
Taking the world by storm, Amazon has launched a product that promises to be the iPod of books. Tastelessly named the Kindle (a thinly veiled reference to book burning, which, instead, is said to represent the ignition of imagination), Amazon's new e-book platform sports an e-ink screen and uses a free EVDO wireless connection to facilitate Kindle store shopping and downloads. The unit also sports a keyboard to facilitate document search and Wikipedia functions. In similar fashion to the iTunes Music Store, the Kindle Store will offer best sellers for $10 and other titles for as little as $1. You can also upload your own documents, through the Amazon site (for proper conversion and, I suspect, copyright check). At $400, this is not yet a cheap book alternative, but the convenience of having a library of books, periodicals and blogs in hand may encourage early adoption of this device. Since it's not unheard of for a semester's worth of printed books to cost that much, the more interesting question is how the Kindle might revolutionize schools and colleges - I guess we'll find out soon!
Since we will be out of the office next Friday, today is our company Thanksgiving. To celebrate, and bring a little holiday cheer to the office, Dan brought in one of his model trains. The sound of the simulated railway engine chugging and tooting, goes well with the smell of smoked turkey on the BBQ!
Now that every phone may potentially be a G-phone, differences in graphics quality and processing speed on mobiles are going to be much more dramatic. This video demo of Android shows off of pretty impressive features. A world time application, features an accurately lit Earth, that the user can spin with their fingers. Between that and the full featured version of Google maps, it's easy to imagine a hand-held Google Earth in the not too distant future. Most surprising to me was the appearance of Quake in the demo, showing off Android's ability to provide programmers access to 3D Open GL rendering. Looks like we're headed for another paradigm shift. Computing has already moved from mainframes to desktops to laptops - now hand-helds appear to me the personal computing platform of the future, bringing us a whole new level of virtual presence and instant information access.
KLOSS has developed a stylish coffee table that lights up when objects are placed on it. The effect is stunning, when the light shines through a clear glass, illuminating the liquid that it contains. The glowing effect is even persistent enough that simple images can be drawn upon the surface, visible for a moment before they fade. At first glance, the DeLightTable looks like a Microsoft Surface, but KOSS' version only works as described above, with no computer or photo viewing capabilities. Since there is no computer within, the table sells for a mere $2500 (easily the price of a non-technological designer table). Check out the video to see it in action!
Qualcomm has developed a display technology that produces colorful, high-contrast images without radiating light. Called the interferometric modulator display (or IMOD), it works on the same principle as butterfly wings, pearls and peacock feathers. The reason that these natural iridescent surfaces are so unusual and vibrant, is that the color is created in the air between the viewer and the object due to wavelength interference between adjacent colors that are less than one light wavelength apart. The bottom line is that this type of display will require an extremely small amount of power and be 10 to 1000 times more responsive than and LCD! The fact that it uses reflected light means that it will be equally viewable indoors and out. This Week's Future Shock Special $10 off any laptop LCD replacement, until next Thursday, using coupon code: TFS
Purveyors of petrol will soon be enticing customers with a new feature at the pumps: Google Maps. Though it may be hard to believe, not everyone has a GPS or internet connected hand-held yet. Google is set to bridge the technological divide by offering interactive, printable maps, accessible from a screen right on the gas pump. Gas pump maps can find local businesses and services (later versions may even include specific address look-up). Imagine stopping for gas in an unfamiliar town, with and empty tank and and empty stomach. You can see the fast food joints lined up on the same street, but a quick search on restaurants near your location reveals that Thai food is available just two streets over - that is, as long as the gas station proprietor recommends it. You see, this initial version will only display recommended results. This could keep you from straying into the bad part of town, or make it harder to find that Thai food, if the station manager thinks it's too weird.
Sometimes an invention comes along that is so brilliant, yet simple that you wonder why no one ever thought of it before. The Pocket Screwdriver is one such innovation. This special, quarter sized, steel washer has a ramp of varying thickness around the perimeter, like a thick version of a spark plug gauge. The varied thickness of the edge ensures a snug fit in any slot between .03 to .09 inches wide. This may not be quite as exciting as a sonic screwdriver but, for 70ยข, there's no reason that everyone shouldn't have one on their key-ring, especially gear-heads and hardware hackers.
NIST (the National Institute for Standards and Technology) has developed a tactile computer display that uses 3600 actuated pins to display high-contrast (1 bit) representations of images. On-screen computer images or images coming in to the computer from a camera are relayed to a blind user's hand, which remains stationary, while their other hand scrolls around the image. Just like the zoom function on a computer. Like a computer monitor, the tactile display is potentially 'viewable' buy multiple users (with or without sight) so, unlike a tongue display, it will enable discussion and collaboration.
