This is the phone we have all been waiting for: Nokia N95
The Nokia N95 seems to take the mobile phone to the next level:
- S60 Symbian
- Web Browser
- E-Mail Client
- 2.6″ QVGC Screen
- Integrated GPS
- 5 Megapixel Camera with Carl Zeiss Lens
- Designed for HSDPA networks (with support for WLAN, EDGE and WCDMA networks)
Price? 550 EUR … and the most important question: By when? Q1 2007
Source: Nokia Press Release
Viral Marketing – a phenomenon still to be understood.
Viral marketing is still a phenomenon that is not completely understood. From the commercial point of view, it just sounds incredibly effective and in the context of networked media and networked society the terminology is very topical.
Here is a small presentation held by GoViral held in Cannes earlier this year (I believe). In my opinion, it is not a particularly good presentation. A lot of information has been around for a while and is not really new, but every once in a while, there is a little spark of brilliance. Judge yourself:
Protection Gear for Your Toy
I have recently been looking for ways of protecting my MacBook. Therefore I have come across several options which I was considering. The iSkin ProTouch first seemed like a good option but on the second thought, I was worried that the pad would block the cooling ventilation through the keyboards.
A frequent problem is that if you carry your laptop around, keyboards are hitting against the screen causing little marks on it. In order to prevent those marks and keep the screen nice, shiny and dust free, I bought myself a marware keyboard cover for a stunning £8.
To get full protection though I am considering getting that invisible shield thing. It comes with a lifetime warranty, so if ever should get scratches, you will get a free replacement.
Google Maps newbies tip: Pinpointing down locations
This could be a good example of a map for pinpointing down a location and then continue processing the longitude/latitude in javascript/ajax.
It consists of a hybrid map with a draggable marker that can also be placed via single click. Double click causes the map to zoom in. The center position of the map as well as the position of the marker will be outputted to the html file.
Here we go:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;
charset=utf-8"/>
<title>Google Maps JavaScript API Example</title>
<script
src="http://maps.google.com/maps?file=api&v=2&key=YOUR_KEY"
type="text/javascript"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
//<![CDATA[
function load() {
if (GBrowserIsCompatible()) {
var map = new GMap2(document.getElementById("map"));
map.addControl(new GLargeMapControl());
map.addControl(new GMapTypeControl());
map.enableDoubleClickZoom();
map.enableContinuousZoom();
var center = new GLatLng(46.5000, 8.1800);
map.setCenter(center, 7);
var marker = new GMarker(center, {draggable: true});
gmarkers = new Array();
gmarkers.push(marker);
GEvent.addListener(marker, "dragstart", function() {
map.closeInfoWindow();
});
GEvent.addListener(map, "moveend", function() {
var center = map.getCenter();
document.getElementById("map_message_center").innerHTML =
"Map Center: "+center.toString();
});
GEvent.addListener(map, 'click', function(marker, point) {
if (point) {
// Change the position of the marker
gmarkers[0].setPoint(point);
// Refresh the marker on the map
gmarkers[0].redraw(true);
// Open the info window now that the marker has been moved
GEvent.trigger(gmarkers[0], "click");
var anchorpoint = gmarkers[0].getPoint();
document.getElementById("map_message_marker").innerHTML =
"Marker Position: "+anchorpoint.toString();
}
});
map.addOverlay(gmarkers[0]);
}
// set map type at the end because it would conflict with the overlay
function
map.setMapType(G_HYBRID_MAP);
}
//]]>
</script>
</head>
<body onload="load()" onunload="GUnload()">
<div id="map" style="width: 380px; height: 380px"></div>
<div id="map_message_center"></div>
<div id="map_message_marker"></div>
</body>
</html>
have fun!
PS: See the proper example here
Bulletproof iPod Case
A Japanese modder created this custom 5mm Aluminum A5052 case for his iPod — which can stop a 0.22 bullet — to prevent it from being crushed by the handrail on those busy subway trains.
More strange iPod cases on techeblog
A small step for man…
Curiosity is as old as humankind. Ever since humans exist, they want to explore the world they are living in. They want to reach the “Edge of the World” to see what’s beyond it, even if it puts their lives in great danger.
Many conquerers and explorers left their harbors and sailed the seas without having an idea where they are going not to mention whether they will survive. Many of them died at sea, but – as we know today – nobody died of falling off the “Edge of the World”.
At some stage it became clear that the world we are living in is a sphere rather than a plate – and soon after, the big conquer of the limited space on this sphere began. Colonialism shaped more than a Century of our history and drove the explorers to every single spot of this world. Every possible species was examined, every territory mapped and every finding studied.
At some stage however, the discovery of the world came to a stall. This must have been around the time, when mapping and navigation was being practiced at such a high sophistication, that the whole world as it looks like could be explained – or at least kind of overviewed.
Needless to say that the fundamentally deep curiosity does not cease at that stage. Something else has to be found. And if it’s not the Earth, surely, it must be Space.
The exploration of space goes back to the times when the first optical telescopes were probably built by the Assyrians with crystal lenses. But exploring space is not like observing space – and thus, as soon as it was possible, research focused on how to leave the planet. This research had been catalyzed by the fact that two competing nations were racing each other for the superiority in space. Not only because of military or strategic interests – but since nobody knew what could be expected out there also for “space colonialism” – or at least to move the research forward in case there should be a point in colonizing space.
During the Cold War, the race for space was in full swing and could only be stopped once the Iron Curtain fell and partly by the Challenger disaster in 1986. Ever since, space exploration had become more steady and the focus shifted from military and explorationary interests to more fundamental research.
But I think, those are not the only reasons why space exploration calmed down a bit. One often underestimated reason is also the discovery of a new space: The “virtual” space called Internet. There is a lot of work ahead for the explorers of the Internet, a truly infinite and timeless n-dimensional space.
PS: The Roundhouse in Camden, London showed an interesting exhibition called “Space Soon – Art and Human Spaceflight” which I was attending.
Graffiti, Art, Flickr and Geo Tagging
Did you know that the London based graffiti artist Banksy has most of his artworks collected on Flickr and quite a few of them are also geo tagged. Check loc.alize.us to see where the stencils are.
Stay clear of .mac web stuff
I don’t even want to know, how much traffic apple is generating with their trailers. But they seem to subsidize the traffic with .mac member contributions:
If you are close to exceeding your monthly data transfer limit, you will receive a message from the .Mac team. You can use up to half of your monthly quota during the first 15 days of a month. If you exceed your data transfer limit, any site, blog, or podcast associated with your .Mac account is turned off and service will not be reinstated until the beginning of the next monitoring period (the 1st or 16th of the month, whichever comes first).
[...]
You can increase your monthly data transfer limit up to 250 GB per month by adding [and paying for] more storage space to your .Mac account.
Source: .mac member help
So they are charging for user to generate content for them while they pay for content they have probably paid license fees for? … isn’t that somehow wrong? All the others seem to have realized that the value doesn’t come from fees alone, but from people using their service at all!
Geotagging Flickr photos with Google Maps
Flickr introduced geotagging a couple of days ago … but Yahoo! maps is still a bit disappointing. Low resolution, poor street maps, slow and not an as usable interface as Google Maps.
But there is a very good alternative to Flickr geotagging: loc.alize.us! It allows you to set the location of an flickr image on google maps via a single click on your bookmarks toolbar! Try it out!
These are pictures from my hometown Bern.
Funny Gadgets: Slim Mouth Piece
This weird Japanese gadget is supposed to tone your face by expanding and contracting flaccid facial muscles. According to the manufacturer, it takes only 2-3 minutes of exercises per day to “sharpen your features”. It comes in medium/hard spring tensions and is priced at $9.50 USD.
via: techeblog