Um, okay? Just days after Apple introduced its exceedingly underwhelming iPad while simultaneously attempting to convince that masses that said product was the portable gaming device they had been waiting their whole lives for, Sony’s own hardware marketing honcho has come forward and extolled Cupertino’s decision to finally make the gaming leap. In a recent interview, John stated the following:
Read the rest of this entry »
We recently highlighted personal development blogger Dragos Roua’s suggestion to treat yourself as a computer to become the best version of yourself. One of his suggestions: Defrag your mind. Here’s a closer look at what he meant.
Roua extended his brain-as-computer metaphor a bit further, offering five steps to defragging your mind. It may sound a little silly, but a lot of it is actually pretty solid advice. For example, in step three Roua explains how to establish priorities:
It was quite the week for Apple, first with its best-ever earnings and then the launch of the iPad. While Apple didn’t create this category of device, it did answer the fundamental question of why this form factor needs to exist. The meta lesson is that the story told is as important as the hardware, software and services being sold — and while everyone may not be convinced, I do think Apple will win over the majority of a skeptical audience with high expectations. But there’s also four important lessons that Apple taught the market this week, as it enters a space that’s been mostly a failure.
1. Define what your product does. The first thing Apple did was answer that question immediately and then define what the product needed to do. Apple explained what capabilities need to be in the this class of device and then went on to show how each of those features not only worked but were optimized for the iPad. That’s something we’ve seen lacking in this category to date.
Developer and blogger Darren Beckett rounds up a crop of five e-readers and gives them a short price and feature comparison with the newly released iPad—and rolled the results in to an eye-friendly infographic.
(Click the image above for a closer look.)
We may have our problems with the iPad, but that doesn’t mean people aren’t interested in buying it. This comparison pits the iPad against other similar devices, highlighting price, screen size and type, storage, input, multi-tasking, multi-function, and connectivity. The charts not perfect (it only compares the bottom-of-the-barrel iPad, so when it says the connectivity is only Wi-Fi, keep in mind that more spendy iPads also have 3G), and it’s not as detailed as, say, this excellent comparison of the current crop of smartphones (which includes monthly fees for a true cost of ownership), but it still offers a nice overview of the market if the iPad’s piqued your interest.
Most e-reader enthusiasts would likely point to the iPad's lack of e-ink as a pretty big red mark—and that because of that the iPad maybe isn't something you'd even want to compare to an e-reader. But convergence devices like the iPad are certainly attractive when they can swallow the functionality of other devices (like e-readers) and offer a lot more at a similar price, so you can be sure that a lot of people interested in buying a Kindle will also be considering the iPad.
Ooyala, the two-year old online video services company, is putting a big effort around its live streaming platform. It will get considerable exposure with the live streaming of the Grammy Awards.
Ooyala is also streaming Grammy videos on demand.
Earlier this week, the platform was used by Britain’s Telegraph newspaper to stream the live testimony of former Prime Minister Tony Blair for Britain’s Iraq inquest. Here are highlights available on demand.
Launched by ex-Googlers, the Mountain View-based company raised an additional $10 million in funding last year for its global expansion.
According to a report in Wired (and a source whom the publication says “could not be named”), Steve Jobs spoke to an audience of Apple employees at a town hall in Cupertino and… pulled zero punches. If you believe what you read, Jobs tackled a handful of major issues that have been buzzing the company lately, namely its run-ins with Google on a number of topics, and the lack of Flash support in its mobile devices (most notably in the upcoming iPad). On Google, Jobs had this to say: “We did not enter the search business. They entered the phone business. Make no mistake they want to kill the iPhone. We won’t let them.” According to the attendee, another topic was brought up but Steve wouldn’t let the Google issue go, stating his thoughts on the company’s famous ‘Don’t be evil’ line. In Steve’s words? “It’s bullshit.”
Furthermore Jobs had a handful of choice words for Adobe, calling the company “lazy” and claiming that “Apple does not support Flash because it is so buggy. Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it’s because of Flash. No one will be using Flash. The world is moving to HTML5.” Of course, these amazing nuggets of wisdom come from a source which Engadget cannot verify, so it’s possible there are misquotes or items taken out of context, though from the sounds of things, this kind of talk falls right in line with what we’d expect from the man who said Microsoft “had no taste” and makes “really third-rate products.” We eagerly await Eric Schmidt’s response. Read the rest of this entry »
If you regularly tear the wrinkled sheets off your bed to use them as a makeshift projector screen, it’s time to upgrade. Make this portable screen on the cheap that stashes away in a closet til the next time you need it.
The DIY portable projector screen project over at Instructables can be whipped together in about an hour, and costs next to nothing to assemble. All you need is a white sheet, some eyelets, a few screw-in hooks, and about 12 feet of PVC pipe.
There’s only five steps involved in making the screen:
1. Decide what size you want. Mine is 5 feet wide by 6 feet tall. 2. Cut and sew the top and sides. Leave a couple inches extra on each side so you can fold it over and sew a seam. 3. Insert eyelets. One on each side of the top. 4. Sew in PVC pipe. This is to make it hang flat and straight, and to make it easy to roll up and store. Just fold the bottom over the PVC, crease the sheet, take out the pipe and sew all the way across. Then slide the pipe in and sew the sides shut. 5. Put the hooks in your ceiling. I put some in my living room, my bedroom, and another bedroom. They’re hardly noticeable so I just leave them up there all the time.
LAS VEGAS — Producers of Fox’s super-popular freshman hit “Glee” will host an open casting call online for a few new roles in the Glee club. The roles are open to both amateurs and professionals.
I sat down with the network’s Laurel Bernard, senior VP of marketing, at the recent NATPE show to chat about the viral efforts the network has relied on for “Glee,” including the casting call and the original launch strategy. She also discussed best practices that networks in general can use when trying to harness viral marketing across other mediums.
The following guest post was written by Edo Segal (@edosegal).
Earlier last week, as the day was coming to an end and I was speaking with my 5 year old at bedtime we shared the highlights of our day. I started by telling him the company that created the iPhone is about to come out with . . . I paused—how do I describe it?—well, a “big iPhone” I said. About this big, I gestured holding my hands about 10 inches apart. “Wow, Amazing!” was his instant reaction as his eyes lit up. Even my 5-year-old knows that bigger is better, especially when it comes to tactile interfaces. In fact, the advantages are probably more obvious to his generation than it is to ours.
For this first generation born into a world of the iPhone, Wii and soon the Xbox’s Project Natal, the distance between the metaphor created by these devices and the reality of their interaction is constantly shrinking. My wife is currently doing her PhD research on the merits of tangible interfaces for young children in education and the data is telling. There is no doubt that there is great potential to enhance learning with tactile computing. Through that lens the “Bigger iPhone” is akin to a bigger yard to play in or a bigger room. This insight is telling. For these kids the iPhone’s primary function is by no means a phone. It is first and formost a gaming device, followed by a networked camera, followed by everything else. Through this lens one can see the importance of the iPad in the historical trajectory of our human-computer interaction. What’s lost in all the complaints about what the iPad is lacking (multitasking, camera, etc.) is that people need to view the iPad on more than its merits as a first-generation product. Rather, they need to understand it in context of the evolutionary arc of computing.
