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Weird gadgets at CES: Motorized unicycle, anyone? (AP) : Technet |
- Weird gadgets at CES: Motorized unicycle, anyone? (AP)
- Wikipedia to be blacked out over anti-piracy bill (AP)
- Zappos says customer database hacked (AP)
- Make a serious impression with these exclusive diamond-encrusted $1,500 business cards (Yahoo! News)
- Creepy Steve Jobs action figure gets canceled after all (Yahoo! News)
- 33 New Digital Media Resources You May Have Missed (Mashable)
- Google tackles online privacy in unusual ad blitz (AP)
- Wal-Mart names head of global eCommerce business (Reuters)
- Samsung says to merge bada mobile OS with Intel-backed Tizen (Reuters)
- Polaroid Showing Flexibility with SC1630 Android Camera (ContributorNetwork)
- GymPact fines lazy users for skipping exercise (Digital Trends)
- How to outrage hundreds of New Yorkers: Let your cell phone go off during the New York Philharmonic (Yahoo! News)
- PC losing traction as half of all computing devices sold are mobile (Appolicious)
- Fresh iPhone Apps for Jan. 16: OnLive Desktop, UPS Mobile update, Bit-1, Hatchi (Appolicious)
- Hulu Ups the Ante by Moving into Original Scripted Programming (ContributorNetwork)
- Nissan unveils world's first self-healing iPhone case (Digital Trends)
- Hacker says to release full Norton Antivirus code on Tuesday (Reuters)
| Weird gadgets at CES: Motorized unicycle, anyone? (AP) Posted: 16 Jan 2012 07:58 AM PST LAS VEGAS – A motorized, seat-less unicycle, a video game you control with your eyes, and a mind-reading headset that serves as a game controller were among the more bizarre gadgets being shown off at this year's International Consumer Electronics Show. Some 3,100 exhibitors attended the show, and although there were plenty of mainstream technologies on display, the show attracted a fair share of off-beat gadgets. Here's a roundup of some of the weirdest devices: • SOLOWHEEL. Picture a unicycle without a frame or saddle, and you have the Solowheel. Not working for you? Ok, add this to the picture: footboards that fold out from the wheel. To ride it, you stand on the footboards and straddle the wheel. Lean forward, and the wheel engages a battery-powered electric motor that can send it _and hopefully its rider_ zooming along at 10 miles per hour. The wheel has a gyroscope that helps keep the rider upright. In other words, it's like a Segway with only one wheel. Because of the rechargeable battery, which has a 15- to 20-mile range, the Solowheel weighs 26 pounds. That's as much as a folding bike, but the Solowheel is more compact. It's sold by Inventist LLC for $1,800. Its creator is a serial inventor, Shane Chen, previously came up with the AquaSkipper, a human-powered hydrofoil. Who's it for? Brave people with a good sense of balance, who want to utterly surprise everyone they meet. • FOAM FIGHTERS. Toy companies are eager to link their products with smartphone and tablet games, creating toys that are an amusing blend of virtual and real. Foam Fighters are made of two sheets of thin foam, painted and shaped like World War II fighter planes such as the famous Mitsubishi Zero. Toss them in the air, and they fly like paper airplanes. Better yet, you can attach them to a plastic arm with a suction cup that, in turn, sticks to the back of an iPhone, iPad or Android phone, right next to the camera. The airplane shows up on screen, and if you download a free app, the fighter plane will look like it's zooming around in war-torn skies, controlled by the movement of the phone or tablet. Foam Fighters go on sale in April. A pack of two, with a stand, will cost $10. Who's it for: AppGear is aiming at kids, ages 8 to 12, but it could appeal to frustrated fighter pilots of all ages. • HAIER BRAIN WAVE. The Chinese appliance company brought this wireless mind-reading headset to the show, and demonstrated how it could be used to control a TV set. It holds one sensing pad to the wearer's forehead and another that clips onto an earlobe. The big limitation is that the mind-reading capability (actually just measurement of brain waves) is crude. The set can only be used to sense if the user wants something to go up or down. For any other direction, you need the remote. In a demonstration of a simple maze-like game, the wearer guided a figure up or down with his mind, and right and left with the remote. Haier said it's developing something that lets the wearer change channels by thinking about it. Haier is selling the set in China, but has no plans to bring it to market in the U.S. Who's it for: No one outside of China, yet. Eventually, this could be a dream come true for the laziest of couch potatoes. • EYE ASTEROIDS — Continuing on the theme of controlling electronics without moving, Swedish company Tobii brought its eye-controlled arcade game to the show. To play, you stand in front of it and look at a screen, where asteroids hurtle toward your battle station. It shoots laser beams at the asteroids you look at, destroying them. So yes, looks can kill. The game cabinet contains cameras that track your gaze. The arcade game is really just a technology demonstration. What Tobii really wants is to have these gaze-tracking cameras built into laptops and other computers, so we can dispense with the mouse. But it does sell the game for $15,000. Who's it for: Arcade owners who want the latest. • SIGNA POWERTREKK — This New York company showed off an alternative to batteries: a fuel cell the size of a big sandwich, powered by small, light "pucks" of a silicon-based material that produces hydrogen when water is added. The fuel cell is expensive, at $200, but the pucks are cheap, at $12 for three. Each puck will produce the equivalent of six AA batteries of electricity. That means it can charge an iPhone twice, through the included cables. SiGNa will be selling the cell through outdoor retailer REI this spring. Who's it for: Campers, hermits and others who need to go a long time without electricity. |
| Wikipedia to be blacked out over anti-piracy bill (AP) Posted: 16 Jan 2012 07:30 PM PST Wikipedia will black out the English language version of its website Wednesday to protest anti-piracy legislation under consideration in Congress, the foundation behind the popular community-based online encyclopedia said in a statement Monday night. The website will go dark for 24 hours in an unprecedented move that brings added muscle to a growing base of critics of the legislation. Wikipedia is considered one of the Internet's most popular websites, with millions of visitors daily. "If passed, this legislation will harm the free and open Internet and bring about new tools for censorship of international websites inside the United States," the Wikimedia foundation said. The Stop Online Piracy Act in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Protect Intellectual Property Act under consideration in the Senate are designed to crack down on sales of pirated U.S. products overseas. Supporters include the film and music industry, which often sees its products sold illegally. They say the legislation is needed to protect intellectual property and jobs. Critics say the legislation could hurt the technology industry and infringe on free-speech rights. Among their concerns are provisions that would weaken cyber-security for companies and hinder domain access rights. The most controversial provision is in the House bill, which would have enabled federal authorities to "blacklist" sites that are alleged to distribute pirated content. That would essentially cut off portions of the Internet to all U.S. users. But congressional leaders appear to be backing off this provision. Tech companies such as Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter, eBay, AOL and others have spoken out against the legislation and said it threatens the industry's livelihood. Several online communities such as Reddit, Boing Boing and others have announced plans to go dark in protest as well. The Obama administration also raised concerns about the legislation over the weekend and said it will work with Congress on legislation to help battle piracy and counterfeiting while defending free expression, privacy, security and innovation in the Internet. Wikipedia's decision to go dark brings the issue into a much brighter spotlight. A group of Wikipedia users have discussed for more than a month whether it should react to the legislation. Over the past few days, a group of more than 1,800 volunteers who work on the site and other users considered several forms of online protest, including banner ads and a global blackout of the site, the foundation said. Ultimately, the group supported the decision to black out the English version of the site. Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia who first announced the move on his Twitter account Monday, said the bills are a threat to the free, open, and secure web. "The whole thing is just a poorly designed mess," Wales said in an email to The Associated Press. Wikipedia is also requesting that readers contact members of Congress about the bill during the blackout. "I am personally asking everyone who cares about freedom and openness on the Internet to contact their Senators and Representative," Wales said. "One of the things we have learned recently during the Arab spring events is that the Internet is a powerfully effective tool for the public to organize and have their voices heard." Wikipedia will shut down access from midnight Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday night until midnight Wednesday. This is the first time Wikipedia's English version has gone dark. Its Italian site came down once briefly in protest to an Internet censorship bill put forward by the Berlusconi government; the bill did not advance. "Wikipedia is about being open," said Jay Walsh, spokesman for the Wikimedia foundation. "We are not about shutting down and protesting. It's not a muscle that is normally flexed." ___ Skidmore reported from Portland, Ore. |
| Zappos says customer database hacked (AP) Posted: 16 Jan 2012 08:15 AM PST PORTLAND, Ore. – Online shoe seller Zappos.com says a hacker may have accessed the personal information of up to 24 million customers. Customers' credit card and payment information was not stolen, but names, phone numbers, email addresses, billing and shipping addresses, the last four digits from credit cards and more may have been accessed in the attack, according to an email that CEO Tony Hsieh sent on Sunday to employees. Zappos is contacting customers by email and urging them to change their passwords. Zappos said the hacker gained access to its internal network and systems through one of the company's servers in Kentucky. Zappos is based in Las Vegas. It is owned by Seattle-based Amazon.com Inc. "We've spent over 12 years building our reputation, brand, and trust with our customers," Hsieh said in his email. "It's painful to see us take so many steps back due to a single incident. I suppose the one saving grace is that the database that stores our customers' critical credit card and other payment data was not affected or accessed." ____ Online: Zappos.com information on password change for customers: http://www.zappos.com/passwordchange CEO email and statement: http://blogs.zappos.com/securityemail |
| Make a serious impression with these exclusive diamond-encrusted $1,500 business cards (Yahoo! News) Posted: 16 Jan 2012 06:30 PM PST |
| Creepy Steve Jobs action figure gets canceled after all (Yahoo! News) Posted: 16 Jan 2012 06:22 PM PST |
| 33 New Digital Media Resources You May Have Missed (Mashable) Posted: 15 Jan 2012 10:29 AM PST Did you keep yourself busy this week reading about all things CES? Well, just in case you missed anything outside of Vegas, it's time for the weekly features roundup. We have tips for navigating the dating scene with digital media, tricks for making your Pinterest cutting edge and pointers for getting the most out of YouTube. We've covered the coolest tech accessories, the most popular Twitter pictures and we're even holding a Facebook short story contest. Here are this week's social media resources.
Editor's Picks
Social Media
Business & Marketing
Tech & Mobile
This story originally published on Mashable here. |
| Google tackles online privacy in unusual ad blitz (AP) Posted: 16 Jan 2012 09:03 PM PST SAN FRANCISCO – Google is focusing on the importance of protecting personal information in an unusual marketing campaign for a company that has been blasted for its own online privacy lapses and practices. The educational ads will start appearing Tuesday in dozens of U.S. newspapers, including The New York Times, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal, and magazines, including Time and the New Yorker. Google Inc. also will splash its message across billboards within the subways of New York and Washington, as well as various websites. Google will address some of the basics of online privacy and security in the "Good To Know" ads, which will all include referrals to a website for additional information. Initial topics to be covered include the steps that can be taken to protect online account passwords and the use of computer coding to locate and identify Web surfers. Google will also try to explain why its widely used search engine can produce more helpful results if it knows more about the past interests of the person making the request. While Google views the campaign as a public service, it may come across as disingenuous to critics who say the Internet search leader compiles too much personal information about its users and then isn't careful enough about protecting the sensitive data. In a major gaffe, Google exposed the personal contacts of its email users in 2010 when it launched a new social service called Buzz. That breakdown led to a settlement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission requiring the company to submit to external audits of its privacy policies every other year. Google's commitment to privacy was called into question again in 2010 when it acknowledged that company-dispatched cars taking photos of streets around the world also had been vacuuming up personal e-mails and website activity occurring over unsecured wireless networks set up in homes and small businesses. "This campaign should be nominated for some kind of award for fiction," said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy. "If grades were given out for privacy protection, Google would get a D plus." Google's ads are coming out at a time when lawmakers and regulators in the U.S. and Europe have been examining whether to mandate changes on how much information that websites can gather about visitors without giving them more controls to prevent the surveillance. Gathering digital dossiers of personal data helps target Internet ads at people more likely to buy the products and services being peddled. Google has an incentive to ensure online ads remain as effective possible because those commercial messages generate most of its revenue, which totaled $27 billion through the first nine months of last year. The company's full-year figures are due out Thursday. The ad campaign is "really just a PR offensive to help dim the increased scrutiny of Google's privacy practices," Chester said. Not so, says Alma Whitten, who was named Google's director of privacy for product and engineering after the company acknowledged its 2010 missteps. "We all have family and friends that ask us for advice on privacy and security all the time," Whitten said. Those recurring questions, she said, made Google realize it should do something to give everyone a better grasp on the fundamentals of online privacy. The total bill for the multi-week blitz will run in the "tens of millions" dollars, according to Google. The company, which is based in Mountain View, Calif., declined to be more specific |
| Wal-Mart names head of global eCommerce business (Reuters) Posted: 16 Jan 2012 04:31 PM PST (Reuters) – Wal-Mart Stores Inc on Sunday named Neil Ashe as the new president and chief executive of its global eCommerce business as the world's largest retailer in a move to bolster its online presence. Wal-Mart, which is trying to meet customers wherever they want to shop -- in stores, online, on phones, on tablets -- said Ashe was most recently president of CBS Interactive. His appointment is effective immediately. Ashe replaces Eduardo Castro-Wright, who announced his pending retirement in September and will assist in the transition, Wal-Mart said. Wal-Mart, which generates more than $400 billion in annual revenue, is the sixth-largest Internet retailer, behind Amazon.com Inc, Staples Inc, Apple Inc, Dell Inc and Office Depot Inc, according to industry publication Internet Retailer. Wal-Mart does not disclose the percentage of sales that comes from its online business. "E-commerce is a great opportunity for us and we have a long-term vision to win," said Mike Duke, Wal-Mart's president and CEO. "We are on track to create the next generation of e-commerce, combining the latest in online innovations with physical stores to give our customers a unique and seamless shopping experience." "We have an understanding of what these customers want, a trusted brand, 200 million weekly shoppers, more than 10,000 stores around the world, and the ability to make significant investments in talent and technology," Duke said. Wal-Mart said it has online businesses in the United States, the UK, Canada and Brazil. It recently started a new unit called @WalmartLabs, whose job is to help Wal-Mart capture more sales from the proliferation of smartphones and social networking. During the past couple of years, Wal-Mart also bought the Vudu streaming video service and technology company Kosmix, and bought a stake in Chinese e-commerce company Yihaodian. In August, Wal-Mart changed its e-commerce business structure, putting the people who run stores in developed markets such as the United States in charge of the websites in those countries. Under the changes, Wal-Mart has e-commerce teams in developed markets -- the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Japan -- report directly to the senior store leadership in those countries. Ashe previously served as CEO of CNET and led the sale of the company to CBS and president of CBS Interactive at that time. In that position, Ashe led the led the interactive content business with operations in the United States, Europe and China. (Reporting By Jessica Hall; Editing by Steve Orlofsky) |
| Samsung says to merge bada mobile OS with Intel-backed Tizen (Reuters) Posted: 16 Jan 2012 05:34 PM PST SEOUL (Reuters) – Samsung Electronics Co said on Tuesday it planned to merge its 'bada' mobile software with a platform backed by chipmaker Intel Corp in its latest push to diversify away from Google's Android. Samsung, which emerged as the world's biggest smartphone manufacturer on the back of booming Android models in the third quarter, joined forces with Intel last year to strengthen its mobile software push. In September two Linux software groups, one backed by Samsung, and another by Intel, agreed to jointly develop Tizen, a new operating system for cellphones and other devices, by merging their LiMo and Meego platforms in a bid to gain wider industry and consumer support. "We have an effort that will merge bada and Tizen," a Samsung spokesman confirmed senior vice president Kang Tae-jin as telling Forbes magazine in an interview last week. The open-source Tizen platform supports multiple devices including smartphones, tablets, Internet-enabled TVs, netbooks and in-vehicle infotainment systems. It would have to attract wide support from developers and manufacturers to compete with the dozen or so other mobile operating systems available in a smartphone market dominated by Google's Linux-based Android and Apple's in-house software. Google's Android accounted for 53 percent of the global smartphone market in the third quarter and Samsung's bada platform just 2.2 percent. (Reporting by Miyoung Kim; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner) |
| Polaroid Showing Flexibility with SC1630 Android Camera (ContributorNetwork) Posted: 16 Jan 2012 09:38 AM PST Contribute content like this. Start here. COMMENTARY | While Bloomberg is reporting legendary photography company Kodak is in talks to file bankruptcy, CNNMoney is reporting another classic photo company, Polaroid, is embracing the technology world and getting ready to deliver an Android-powered camera to the marketplace. Polaroid is trying to stay ahead of the steep digital curve brought on by technology, which is a lesson all companies should learn. Transitioning business plans and market strategies is never an easy process, which is something Kodak is learning. As the Bloomberg report mentions, Kodak is due to report fourth-quarter earnings at the end of January, and nobody is really expecting good news. On the other side of the coin is Polaroid. As CNNMoney reports, Polaroid is aware digital cameras are being replaced by smartphones. But the Android powered Polaroid SC1630 is basically a 16-mega pixel camera with a 3.2 inch LCD touch screen. The article also highlights the touch screen will allow full access to the Android app market. That is some serious resolution in a point-and-shoot camera, but to have Wi-Fi connectivity is even more of a treat. Polaroid is showing flexibility and confidence the way savvy technology companies should. The Associated Press report that highlights Hulu moving further into the realm of original programming confirms that some companies know that shifting business models is important in the current world of sharing, mobile devices, and video streaming. Sure the Polaroid SC1630 might not be an iPhone, and the device could arrive to flat sales. But Polaroid is not just standing by and watching the new market pass them by, which is admirable. There is plenty of room for gadgets in the tech world, and consumers always seem to sift through the madness to find the most trustworthy items. If the SC1630 can fill a void, it will succeed; just like the company behind the device. |
| GymPact fines lazy users for skipping exercise (Digital Trends) Posted: 16 Jan 2012 09:35 PM PST
Designed by a couple recent Harvard grads, GymPact is a service that encourages people to make it into the gym by linking performance to money according to ABC News. Currently limited to iPhone owners, users sign up for the service through the GymPact application and decide how many days per week that they would like to exercise. The app allows the user to "check-in" to the gym similar to Foursquare and the minimum amount of time that qualifies for a check-in at the gym is 30 minutes. GymPact currently has about 40,000 gyms in the database, but a user can add a new gym by "checking in" during a 30 minute workout. In addition, the amount of exercise dictates how much a user gets paid. Once a user reaches $10 in earnings, they can withdraw that money and deposit it into their Paypal account. Users can opt out of the program for the following week at any time, but cannot leave during the current week-long pact. However, users that get injured during the week can provide a medical exemption note from a doctor or employer to opt out of the current pact. According to company representatives, payout rates have been hovering between 50 cents to $1 per workout. A user that works out four times a week stands to make between $100 to $200 a year for sticking to exercise goals. GymPact also plans to make the application available to Android owners very soon as well as anyone on a mobile device with a HTML5-compatible browser. This article was originally posted on Digital Trends More from Digital Trends Smartphones and the iPad make up 5 percent of Web browsing Twitter who? iOS 5 connects with multiple social platforms, including Facebook |
| Posted: 16 Jan 2012 10:02 AM PST |
| PC losing traction as half of all computing devices sold are mobile (Appolicious) Posted: 16 Jan 2012 11:47 AM PST |
| Fresh iPhone Apps for Jan. 16: OnLive Desktop, UPS Mobile update, Bit-1, Hatchi (Appolicious) Posted: 16 Jan 2012 05:37 AM PST |
| Hulu Ups the Ante by Moving into Original Scripted Programming (ContributorNetwork) Posted: 16 Jan 2012 09:38 AM PST Contribute content like this. Start here. COMMENTARY | Apparently the folks at Hulu have been studying up on the competition and are getting ready to launch their first scripted original series, according to the Associated Press. The AP report informs readers the name of the show will be "Battleground" and it will be an inside look at a primary campaign for public office. Hulu is apparently trying up the ante against another online video streaming giant called Netflix. Netflix is set to debut its first original program, "Lillyhammer," in February, as Ad Age Digital reports. While the two streaming services are directly competing against each other, they are also in a fight with traditional television networks over viewers and advertisers, as the Ad Age report clarifies. Spending a lot of cash to license rights to shows that appear on other networks is just one way of keeping the competition afloat. Making a transition into original programming could be a good thing for Hulu, which has somewhat lurked in the shadow cast by Netflix. A successful original series could potentially lure more viewers to the website, which would help the overall exposure of the service. In addition, a Businesswire reports, "Battleground" is the first of three original shows for Hulu this year. If one of the shows becomes even close to a hit, Hulu could draw some viewers from a variety of sources. Original programming seems to be a big deal for companies associated with streaming and sharing what other studios have done. By eliminating the middleman, Hulu and Netflix could deliver better profit margins. As a Reuters report indicates, Hulu is definitely doing whatever it can to become an alternative to traditional television programming. But as the Reuters report shows, Hulu has some ground to catch up on as the company boasts 1.5 million paying subscribers to the 23 million paying customers serviced by Netflix. However, a good television could help change that statistic. |
| Nissan unveils world's first self-healing iPhone case (Digital Trends) Posted: 16 Jan 2012 09:10 PM PST
On Monday it announced the Nissan Scratch Shield iPhone case, describing it as "self-healing." This means that if you're unfortunate enough to accidentally scratch it, it will actually mend itself, with small scratches healing in as little as one hour, and deeper ones taking up to a week. The technology, developed by Nissan in collaboration with the University of Tokyo and Advanced Softmaterials Inc., involves a special kind of paint already used on a number of Nissan cars. "The outer 'paint' is made from polyrotaxane," Nissan explains on its website, "which means that when damage occurs to the coating in the form of a fine scratch, the chemical structure is able to react to change back to its original shape and fill the gap – 'healing' the blemish." It’s the first time it’s been used with a non-automotive product and has the added benefit of being easier to grip than the iPhone’s glossy surface. Nissan also claims that the plastic used for the case is more rigid and robust than other plastics. Bob Laishley, overseas program director of business development for Nissan in Europe, said of the new case, "The Scratch Shield iPhone case is a great example of us taking a Nissan automotive technology that has had a huge impact for our customers, and then shifting the boundaries to apply it to another everyday product," adding, "We're really excited about the possibilities provided by this technology." Of course, there are plenty of rubber iPhone cases out there that protect Apple's smartphone adequately and which are also immune to scratches. But we can well imagine that a case which you can scratch and watch heal will be a hit with consumers, and the first one that will have iPhone owners around the world deliberately running their device over rough surfaces just to be able to witness it magically mend itself—although that does sound rather like watching paint dry, when you come to think of it. This article was originally posted on Digital Trends More from Digital Trends TidyTilt acts as a modified Smart Cover for your iPhone Batman-like armored iPhone dock brings mobile protection for you and your smartphone Mind Control: Hackers working on project that will let you control Siri with your brain |
| Hacker says to release full Norton Antivirus code on Tuesday (Reuters) Posted: 16 Jan 2012 08:08 AM PST NEW DELHI (Reuters) – A hacker who goes by the name of "Yama Tough" threatened Saturday to release next week the full source code for Symantec Corp's flagship Norton Antivirus software. "This coming Tuesday behold the full Norton Antivirus 1,7Gb src, the rest will follow," Yama Tough posted via Twitter. In the past week Yama Tough has released fragments of source code from Symantec products along with a cache of emails. The hacker says all the data was taken from Indian government servers. (Reporting By Frank Jack Daniel) |
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