19 new stories on The Next Web today |  |
- Google Celebrates UAE National Day [TNW Middle East]
- TNW Mobile Review: HTC 7 Trophy [TNW Mobile]
- Samsung’s South Korean Galaxy S sales reach 2.3 million, Galaxy Tab passes 100k units [TNW Mobile]
- 83% Of Android Devices Run Android 2.1 Or Above [TNW Mobile]
- BBC’s worldwide iPlayer launch will be subscription-based, iPad only [TNW UK]
- Like WordPress? You can now buy some official WP swag online [TNW Social Media]
- No games after midnight for South Korean kids [TNW Asia]
- How to: Choose the right domain for you [TNW Lifehacks]
- Did Google put Marissa Mayer in charge of local because of Groupon? [TNW Google]
- New commercial: Six degrees of Google TV starring Kevin Bacon [TNW Shareables]
- Blackberry 6 leads with US security approval, but for how long? [TNW Mobile]
- Brits create ‘smart’ beer coasters that deliver cheesy pickup lines [TNW Shareables]
- Japanese robot uses Microsoft Kinect-like magic to detect and pick ripe fruit [TNW Gadgets]
- Google Maps peddles new Canadian bike route feature [TNW Canada]
- Intelligently silence Gmail conversations with “Smart Mute” [TNW Google]
- Zuckerberg returns to 60 Minutes this Sunday [TNW Facebook]
- Superb Kinetic Typographic Animation [TNW Shareables]
- The first Windows Phone 7 update will be minuscule, not massive [TNW Microsoft]
- BlackBerry Playbook to support native HTML5 apps. Will problems follow? [TNW Gadgets]
- Android 2.2 now on more phones than 2.1 for first time [TNW Mobile]
| Google Celebrates UAE National Day [TNW Middle East] Posted: 02 Dec 2010 03:38 AM PST
The oil rich country is famous for it’s many wealthy states, the most well known of which are Abu Dhabi, the richest and second largest city in the UAE, and Dubai the rising star in the Middle East and home to Khalifa Tower – the world’s tallest erected structure. The doodle displayed on the Google UAE country page features one of the many cultural castles in the UAE, called Al-Hayl (or Al-Heil depending on the source) which is in the centre of Fujairah, dates from 1670 AD. It is the oldest fort in the Emirates. Built of mud-brick, it has undergone considerable restoration work. It stands proudly against the backdrop of Jabal Mulfirah.
Thought you might be interested in seeing the real thing, so here are a few shots of the castle to enjoy.
[Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| TNW Mobile Review: HTC 7 Trophy [TNW Mobile] Posted: 02 Dec 2010 03:02 AM PST Windows Phone 7 handsets have been available in a number of markets around the world for just over month and has come in for some praise whilst others complain Microsoft’s new operating system hasn’t quite done enough to differentiate itself from its competition. Just a few days ago, we reviewed the HTC Surround, a device that sports long battery life, high call quality and a focus on multimedia. Today we have another HTC Windows Phone 7 device in our possession and aim to give it the teardown it deserves. First Look and SpecificationsThe HTC 7 Trophy sports very similar specifications to its other Windows Phone 7 toting counterparts, Microsoft made sure to keep the devices running its operating system adhered to minimum specification. The Trophy (as we are going to call it) sports a 1GHz Snapdragon QSD8250 processor, features 512MB ROM, 576MB RAM as well as 8 gigabytes of internal storage. Rocking a 3.8 inch touch screen with 480 x 800 pixel resolution, the Trophy takes photos with a 5MP camera (capable of 720p HD video) with auto focus and flash. The handset is typically HTC, dominated by a large screen, soft bevels and an almost rubberised back. Utilising three touch buttons at the bottom of the screen, HTC has kept physical buttons to a minimum, opting for volume controls, a camera control and the all-important power button. On the back of the Trophy lies a slightly raised camera lens, flash and loudspeaker. The loudspeaker works well when the device is in a holder or in the hand but when taking a call, the phone cannot be laid on its back mainly because the speaker is blocked to such an extent, the person on the other end becomes almost unintelligible. Luckily, HTC has anticipated people might decide to do that and has programmed the device to recognise when the phone changes orientation, outputting the audio via the rear speaker when the phone is placed face down. On the left side of the device lies a MicroUSB jack, the main connection between you, your computer and a swift charge. On the top lies a 3.5mm headphone jack which allows the user to control his/her music using the bundled headphones using the integrated remote. Headphone quality resembles that of the bundled iPod headphones we have come to know and love, they do the job well enough but ultimately need replacing to get the most out of your music. The Operating System and HTC HubNot able to completely overhaul the UI on its handsets like it does with Android, HTC has had to settle for bundling its own HTC Hub and offering an array of pre-installed HTC apps. As the operating system launched only a month or so ago, HTC offers apps as a way of easing the transition to a Windows Phone 7 device by bundling apps such as Sound Enhancer, Photo Enhancer, Stocks, Notes and a Converter app. The HTC Hub is literally HTC’s Sense UI encapsulated within an app that can be launched from the home screen. As soon as you click the HTC block, the distinctive HTC clock appears (making you wonder if you had picked up an Android device by mistake), loading a visually appealing weather backdrop and associated temperatures. Because Windows Phone 7 doesn’t allow for native multi-tasking, at least for third-party applications, HTC’s Hub has to be individually loaded each time, keeping the UI seemingly inside a walled garden.
Connecting your Google or Hotmail accounts will allow the transfer of your contacts, Microsoft has done a great job of porting over all of your private data from external accounts. Our review unit was provided by Vodafone, hence the red appearance of the home screen. All operators look to be skinning the devices they offer to reflect their branding, although this can be easily changed in the settings. Theme options include changing the hub colours and switching the background to one of two options, light or dark, which equates to black and white. Photos and Video
Photo quality on the HTC 7 Trophy is a mixed bag. Snapping macro shots of flowers captures a decent level of detail but the resulting pictures still appear washed out. When capturing broad shots of the snow, the Trophy stuggles to take the shot. We noticed distinctive shutter lag and increased graininess, again images looked washed out and colourless. The handsets’ LED flash does a great job of lighting environments, to the point that it completely illuminates everything in its radius, washing out lines, features and focal points. Windows Phone 7 has multimedia sharing built into its core, allowing you to share your photos by uploading them to one of the connecting social networks on your device or by emailing them to friends or family. Instead of waiting for the OS to catch up with your key-presses as your type in a contact name like on your iPhone, Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 instantly delivers contacts from your address book, allowing you to attach additional files to your email from within the editor. Its quite funny that, even though it boasts 720p video, the default video setting for the Trophy is 640 x 480, outputting footage of decent quality but something you wouldn’t be too happy showing to your friends in a full screen YouTube video. Changing the setting within the camera app fixes this but for some reason this setting didn’t see to save as a default setting, proving to be highly annoying when you whip out the Trophy to try and capture a quick, high-quality piece of video. Guessing that the video sharing process would be as simple as uploading or emailing images, we were perplexed when it came to getting the sample videos we had taken off of the device itself. As a network of Mac users, we navigated to Microsoft’s website and downloaded the Windows Phone 7 Connector tool from their website, an app that is remarkably similar to the Image Capture Mac application. The connector syncs all of your content to iPhoto for easy management. All of that aside, the Trophy’s video output is solid, if not a little colourless. In our tests, the camera had minor struggles trying to find the optimal zoom for the subjects it was attempting to focus on but overall the playback was smooth in lighted environments. Battery LifeNot having the need to make many calls, the Trophy’s battery lasted two days whilst we conducted our tests. The 1300mAh battery holds up well to moderate use, probably helped by the fact the OS doesn’t really allow for multitasking. The Trophy therefore performs the necessary social network and email checks and lies patiently for the user to come back to it, the way Microsoft has been consistently advertising. Hits
Misses
ConclusionIt is difficult to pick many faults in the HTC 7 Trophy, the device deals with nearly everything you throw at it. Microsoft has ensured the devices its new operating system powers are able to navigate menus without lag or excess loading, instantly delivering content and data on the device. It’s difficult to find fault with the handset other than its less than spectacular camera, the Trophy is suited to the new operating system is runs. Windows Phone 7 is buggy in places, resetting values to their defaults when you change them, not allowing users to take screenshots and throwing up some unusual orientation issues at times. It shouldn’t impact on HTC but users will look to the manufacturer over the software developer, something that Microsoft will need to change when it releases its first update. If you must have Windows Phone 7 handset, we can’t find much to put against the HTC 7 Trophy. It performs all its tasks well and has all the features that a modern smartphone needs. Just don’t expect to become the next David Bailey. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Samsung’s South Korean Galaxy S sales reach 2.3 million, Galaxy Tab passes 100k units [TNW Mobile] Posted: 02 Dec 2010 02:19 AM PST
In the month of November, Samsung sold a total of 1.89 million handsets, slightly less than its October sales. The Galaxy S helped drive strong October sales with over 820,000 smartphones sold in South Korea during the period, amounting to a 43.2 share of the smartphone market in the country at that time. In other regions, the Samsung Galaxy S has fared slightly better; in the US, the smartphone has surpassed 3 million sales. Samsung also announced that it has surpassed 100,000 sales of its Galaxy Tab device, a steady launch but lacking when compared to the reported 60,000 Apple iPad pre-orders, a device that launched on November 30. That said, Samsung has sold over 600,000 of its tablet devices since launch and is well on course to meet its sales target of one million units. Samsung Hub reports that Samsung’s Corby handset range has recorded sales of 1,600,000 units to date, the SHW-A130 passing 650,000 units and Nori Series just under 450,000 units.Image Credit [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| 83% Of Android Devices Run Android 2.1 Or Above [TNW Mobile] Posted: 02 Dec 2010 01:15 AM PST
The figure, up 6% from the previous report, demonstrates Google’s efforts to reduce fragmentation of its operating system, often plagued by mobile operators that would delay updates as they sought to include branding, additional software and bug fixes. From the data collected two weeks previous to December 1 2010, Android 2.2 was operational on 43.4% of Android devices, with Android 2.1 accounting for 39.6%. Android 1.6 can be found on 10.6% of devices and Android 1.5 run on 6.3%, thanks largely to users not knowing they can update their devices or their phones have become obsolete and are no longer supported. The charts are set to reflect a new firmware when Google releases its next update, although it will be many weeks until devices around the world receive it. The search giant has not given any indication as to when it will release Android 2.3, codenamed Gingerbread, however it is estimated that users will begin to receive it before the end of the year. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| BBC’s worldwide iPlayer launch will be subscription-based, iPad only [TNW UK] Posted: 01 Dec 2010 11:48 PM PST
The BBC has long intended to make its iPlayer service available overseas, giving its programming a worldwide audience. Shows like Top Gear, Sherlock and Doctor Who have proved massive hits in the U.S and the BBC wants to be able to generate extra income from running these shows via its BBC Worldwide channels. With this in mind, the BBC has announced that the global version of its iPlayer service will be on a subscription-only basis and when it is initially rolled out, will only be available on the iPad. BBC.com managing director Luke Bradley-Jones said:
The BBC has taken an interesting approach, choosing to focus on the iPad as its sole means of transmission. By offering’s iPad content subscriptions, the BBC will be able to scale its service as demand rises, building its platform to roll out to a larger audience should there be enough demand. By offering a subscription, the corporation will be able to appease content producers and enjoy revenue similar to its current system of making BBC shows available for purchase on platforms like iTunes, a model that saw the BBC pull in around £10 million in 2008/09. With a 12-month deadline on the project, the service could be available a lot sooner than anticipated. The BBC has long said that it wanted to make its shows available to ex-pats who weren’t able to view programmes from their locations, a subscription-based model, if priced right, will surely bring these people back to watch the programmes they love. UK users are able to view iPlayer streams from their iPad currently but the dedicated app developed by the BBC is not yet live. The corporation will use the same technologies to stream content worldwide, incurring less development costs in the process.Image Credit [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Like WordPress? You can now buy some official WP swag online [TNW Social Media] Posted: 01 Dec 2010 11:16 PM PST To say that WordPress.com has a loyal following would be an severe understatement – millions of people rely on the blogging platform day in and day out. Well, if you’re a fan of WordPress.com, and you’d like to tell the world, Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com has just launched an official swag store. Right now there seems to only be 13 products, ranging in prices from $8-35, with most of them in the $10-20 range. Clothes, hoodies, baby clothes and things like water bottles and USB flash drives are featured, and while we’re not sure if all of the models in the pictures are Automattic employees, Matt Mullenwag and a few other recognizeable faces are on the page. Of course, if you’ve ever been to a WordCamp before you probably already have some WordPress swag at home, but if not, here’s your chance to get all geekified.
So, what would you like to buy today dear bloggers? [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| No games after midnight for South Korean kids [TNW Asia] Posted: 01 Dec 2010 10:09 PM PST
The proposed bill for the so called “Cinderella” ban could go before the South Korean parliament as early as this month and would require internet service providers to cut off access to online games for all users under the age of 16. The government is also considering limiting the number of hours spent gaming online by young gamers. South Korea is one of the most widely connected online countries in the world with, proportionally, one of the largest online gaming communities in the world. There have been several recent reports of deaths associated with online gaming in South Korea: Recently, a 15 year old boy allegedly killed his mother and then committed suicide after she told him off for playing online for too long and a 32 year old man is said to have died last February as a result of a non-stop online gaming session that lasted for five days. While sensational stories like these grab headlines, the South Korean government’s primary concern, in the education conscious country, is that kids are pulling all nighters at the computer and are just not getting enough sleep to be able to function well in school during the following day.image, image, Yahoo! [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| How to: Choose the right domain for you [TNW Lifehacks] Posted: 01 Dec 2010 10:02 PM PST Doesn’t matter if it’s for your company, your hobby, or yourself if you want to have a more personal presence online you need a domain name of your own. Now sometimes getting that name is easy. Like my personal domain is trishussey.com … yeah that’s pretty easy. Robert Scoble has had scobleizer.com for years, because “scobleized” and “scobleizer” was something that came from his college days. If you’re lucky enough that your company name is available, again, all set, but what if you need more help? What if the ideas are just not coming to you? What if you need a little help? You’ve come to the right place, welcome to … Tips and Tools for Picking the Right Domain Keywords First tip isn’t related to tools at all, it’s about words. Think keywords when you’re picking a domain. Think about what words you want tied to your idea. What is your site going to be about? Is it more than your business name? Are we talking about an idea? For a now-defunct cocktail blog I came up with DrinksAfterDark.com … it was available, had a good keyword in there, was easy to spell… Spelling Oh yes, spelling. Nothing worse than a domain no one can spell. Too long, too complicated … mixing zero and the letter “o” … all those things make for bad domains, well except for spelling something entirely else. Make sure that your domain doesn’t spell something you’d rather not have associated with your company. You know like, Mole Station Native Nursery using molestationnursery.com or Who Represents as whorepresents.com or Experts Exchange as expertsexchange.com. Yeah, you’ll become a joke in all Internet marketing 101 classes from now on. Okay, these are ground rules, things to start off with. Remember: Keywords, spelling, easy, understandable. Now, for that domain. You can brainstorm ideas for a while, but honestly that gets old after about 5 or 10 minutes, and that’s what we have computers for. So armed with the info on what makes for a good domain, let’s take a couple apps for a spin to see what we can come up with. Domain Recommendation Apps-Websites There are a couple different ways to attack getting a domain, but let’s start with the keyword-based approach. A site like NameBoy.com lets you put in a couple keywords and returns a list of potential domains. So, let’s say I was going to start a blog on fountain pens, so using “fountain pen” in the first box (primary keywords) and “advice” in the second, I get a list like this:
Yeah, maybe not the best first start, but lots of ideas there. Oh and a note on hyphens. I’m not a fan of those in domain names. When I’ve had domains with a hyphen I was always saying “blahblahblah hyphen blahblah dot com” which isn’t great for clarity or communication. If you don’t like the results from NameBoy, try NetTumbler.com. NetTumbler will return a massive list of domains, again…maybe no winners right off, but certainly more ideas. But what about something a little more … current? You know like Instagram using Instagr.am, using a word as a domain? No, I can’t keep all the TLDs (top level domains) in my head, nor can I just pull cool words out of my head that will end in the right dot suffix, but wordy can! Finding those “word” domains Wordy let’s you type in a word and you get domains that use all or part of the word. I came up dry using fountain pen, but Vancouver returned vancouv.er! It’s a lot more error for all the trying, but no doubt it’s fun. Just remember, these domains are trendy now, but it might also become tedious having to spell out your domain all the time. Yeah, .com is boring, but .com is what people know.
Speaking of trends, what about short domains? Like our own tnw.to or my tris.me? As trendy as these might be, they are trendy and useful. Figuring out a cool short url can be tricky. In Canada we’re pretty lucky because our TLD is .ca so we can start with the shortest TLD possible, but what about other options? I have just the thing for you: Domainr. When shorter is better Domainr is the tool bit.ly suggested when they came out with bit.ly pro (which I got into in short order). Domainr is as simple as all the others, start with a word and start getting suggestions. If there is a green box next to the name, it’s available. Yeah, I wanted tr.is, but I couldn’t get it. I could get tristr.am … for about $60-70.
Right. This is the other important thing to know about domains. A lot of these new “fun” TLDs like .tv (Tuvalu), .me (Macedonia) and .co (Columbia) come at premium prices. Not many $10 a year domain deals here. Still stuck? Yeah, I feel your pain. I’ve had to come up with dozens of domain names over the years, and frankly most of the best ones have come like a bolt from the blue. Course you can attract that bolt by using tools like NameBoy, NetTumbler, wordy, Domainr and others (a great list is in this post) to start playing with ideas and keywords. The rest…is up to you.photo credit [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Did Google put Marissa Mayer in charge of local because of Groupon? [TNW Google] Posted: 01 Dec 2010 08:41 PM PST
So if we go with this rumor, it would make sense that Google has been thinking about this for awhile, probably at least six months, right? Ok, so if Groupon does become a part of Google, what part of the company would it end up being a part of? Yes, Groupon is a kind of advertising, but somehow we don’t see it be placed in the same was within Google as DoubleClick was when it was acquired. Also, it wouldn’t make much sense if Groupon were to be a part of Google’s social initiative, at least in any way that we can see. So where does that put it? Squarely in local, which just happens to be a newly reorganized division with long-time Googler Marissa Mayer newly at the helm. So here’s our question – did Google’s executive team put Mayer there for the clearly stated purpose of handling Groupon once the deal was done (come on, you know that if Google want a company bad enough, they’re going to get it, right?) We’ve been thinking over this for the last couple of days and we’ve come to the conclusion that this is most likely the case. A $5+ billion purchase – even for Google – is not something to be taken lightly, and it would make perfect sense to put Mayer – who is still only 35 years old – in charge of what many believe to be “the next big thing”. She certainly has a very good grasp as to the major mistakes that Google has made in the past, so she would be a pretty safe bet to lead a post-Groupon-acquisition Google local. At first, we thought that Mayer was in the position in order to court Foursquare or another check-in service, and frankly, Google could still make that move. However, if the idea was to get the best deals company out there, it’s hard to argue against Groupon being that company. So why Mayer? Well, for one, she guided Google through a decade of its search engine, which turned out pretty well. Also, as we said above, she’s young (and so is Groupon CEO Andrew Mason – more on him in a second), and maybe more importantly, she’s already had her exit with Google going public – she is a very wealthy person. That wealth, added to the desire to do something big and new, could actually (hypothetically of course) been something that Mayer might have used as leverage to get this position on the terms that she wanted, i.e. nothing is keeping Mayer at Google other than herself. So where would this put Groupon CEO Andrew Mason if any of this is true? Would the new billionaire (he’s got to be one after this right?) want to work for Mayer, or is Google going to keep him in charge of the operation, with Mayer only playing a mentor role? Mason is a very engaging personality – as is Mayer – so we kind of doubt that whatever happens, he won’t but tucked away somewhere out of the spotlight – few billionaires are. Of course, Mason could just decide to stay on as long as it takes to get the companies integrated, and then go buy his own island. All that said, we think that if the Groupon acquisition happens, we expect Mayer to be leading a renewed charge into local with the combined assets of both Google and Groupon behind her. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| New commercial: Six degrees of Google TV starring Kevin Bacon [TNW Shareables] Posted: 01 Dec 2010 07:50 PM PST Logitech just posted this commercial for its Logitech Revue Google TV box, starring Kevin Bacon as a guy that is obsessed with, well, Kevin Bacon. Or at least we think it might be Kevin Bacon…there is a strong resemblance… p.s. it really is Kevin Bacon.Brittany Bohnet [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Blackberry 6 leads with US security approval, but for how long? [TNW Mobile] Posted: 01 Dec 2010 06:14 PM PST
FIPS 140-2 stands for Federal Information Processing Standard and is a U.S. government standard used to validate cryptographic hardware and software and ensure that it securely encrypts data. The standard was developed by the Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP), which certifies products for use by U.S. government agencies and regulated industries that collect, store, transfer, share and disseminate sensitive information. While previous versions of the Blackberry OS have also complied with this standard, the certification of Blackberry’s latest OS kernel must be seen by Research In Motion as giving it an advantage in the smartphone market for its latest handsets where it has been losing ground to Apple’s iPhone and Google Android based systems. Research In Motion’s soon to be released Playbook tablet runs a variation of the QNX operating system which is already FIPS certified. It’s difficult to say how long this advantage will last, checking the ‘Modules in Process’ records, here (pdf), we can already see that Apple’s iOS is going through the same process with at least one of their modules near to certification. Once Apple gets into the government security certified market, with the iPhone or iPad (both are in process), it’s easy to see that Research In Motion could quickly lose this advantage.CIO, Boy Genius report, image, image [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Brits create ‘smart’ beer coasters that deliver cheesy pickup lines [TNW Shareables] Posted: 01 Dec 2010 05:55 PM PST We’re guessing that the Germans were too busy creating mutating robots to come up with this one: a team of university students in the UK have developed a beer-coaster-plus-interactive-bar that is designed to help bar goers break the ice.
According to the Guardian, the system works like this: when a patron puts down their glass on the coaster, a lighted ring is projected around the coaster (blue for men, pink for women a second tap with the glass changes the color/gender)from under the bar – which we’re guessing has to be glass in that case. Patrons can move their coasters/selves around on the bar until they’re within 60cm (about two feet) of another coaster. Then the fun begins: the current system then projects a ticker-tape kind of message between the coasters. The message? Random – and cheesy – pick up lines. Because cheesy pickup lines just are that much better when a coaster says them right? Here’s a couple:
Thankfully for all the lonely people out there, eventually the system should let people input their own cheesy lines. Tom Bartindale, one of the developers at Newcastle University, was quoted as saying:
The first installation of this system will actually be shown tonight (December 2) in Newcastle. No word yet on whether you’ll be able to bring these home with you to start a smart-cheesy-pick-up-line-coaster collection.Guardian [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Japanese robot uses Microsoft Kinect-like magic to detect and pick ripe fruit [TNW Gadgets] Posted: 01 Dec 2010 05:34 PM PST
However, Farmers around the world shouldn’t be sweating bullets just yet because it’s just a prototype. But boy, is it a cool one. Here’s how it works. The robot uses two cameras to create a 3D image of the strawberry. From there, it’s able to detect whether or not the fruit is ripe by measuring its color and if the strawberry is red enough (it must be 80% red), the robot picks the strawberry from the stalk in about 9 second without any collateral damage. So, just how useful is this thing? Well, CrunchGear puts it into perspective. While it would take a normal human 500 hours to pick every strawberry in a 1000 sq meter field, these robots would be able to finish the job in 300. Pretty impressive stuff and certainly a more welcomed addition to the robot world than those German robots that can design and mutate all by themselves. That’s just down right scary. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Google Maps peddles new Canadian bike route feature [TNW Canada] Posted: 01 Dec 2010 05:25 PM PST
Down South, folks in the States have been able to get directions if they were driving, walking, busing or biking for a few months now. Up here in Canada, while biking season is short for a lot of the country (it’s pretty much year round here in Vancouver), we still ride our bikes a lot. Starting today you can now plan your bike ride with the help of Google Maps:
Like in the States, Google has even marked the routes depending on how “bike friendly” they are. Dark green means there is a dedicated bike lane, dotted green a “bike friendly” street. It looks like Google did their homework, my street is a designated “bike route” so there are lots of bikes on it, sometimes much to the chagrin of drivers and pedestrians, and it’s marked with a dotted green line. I wish Google has rolled this out while most of Canada was still interested in biking, but I’m sure come summer, casual riders, tourists (Vancouver especially has a lot of bike touring you can do), and maybe even regular riders will be tapping into Google Maps to peddle their way to where they are going.Google, photo credit [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Intelligently silence Gmail conversations with “Smart Mute” [TNW Google] Posted: 01 Dec 2010 05:03 PM PST
The problem was that muting like that wasn’t terribly “smart”, because if emails were still addressed to you, you’d wind up with “muted” messages in your inbox. Today, Google has added a new Labs feature in Gmail called Smart Mute that does … well let’s let the folks at Google describe it:
Nice! First, here’s how you set it up.
Oh, but how you ask? Right, easy. Google added a neat little short cut under the “More Actions” button to Mute and Unmute conversations:
And if you see a message that you want to unmute a conversation while browsing around you can also “unlabel” it as muted like this:
Pretty spiffy I think. I’m often prone to just deleting a lot of conversations that start dragging on, this lets me keep an archive of something that might be important later (for example something from the WordPress testers mailing list), but I’m really done with for the moment. Of course, sometimes you just need to unsubscribe from the list entirely, but that’s a different conversation altogether.Google, photo credit [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Zuckerberg returns to 60 Minutes this Sunday [TNW Facebook] Posted: 01 Dec 2010 05:01 PM PST
Oh how times have changed. In the two years that have followed, Facebook has become the top seed in the challenge to Google, it has stolen (acquired?) talent from around the Valley and it has proven itself to be a juggernaut of a service that simply can’t do enough wrong to be damaging. Now, Zuckerberg will return to TV, this Sunday. It’s time for another session on 60 Minutes and we’re guessing that the questions will be considerably different this time around. Kara Swisher, from All Things Digital, will return and rumor has it that she’ll be reneging her title of “Toddler CEO” from Zuck. What points will be made? What questions will be asked? We’ll all have to wait until Sunday, but you can bet that TNW will fill you in just in case you miss the sordid details. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Superb Kinetic Typographic Animation [TNW Shareables] Posted: 01 Dec 2010 03:58 PM PST Superb what? Kinetic Typographic Animation, I know, it’s a mouthful. But then again it’s seriously cool. It’s a way to animate text or lyrics using appropriate fonts or typography to better communicate the message. Jonathan Coulton made a song called ‘Shop Vac’ which lends itself perfectly for this kind of animation, go see for yourself: Now I know most of you have already seen clips like these but in my opinion; this is one of the best I’ve ever seen. Do you know a better one? Please let us know!Reddit [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| The first Windows Phone 7 update will be minuscule, not massive [TNW Microsoft] Posted: 01 Dec 2010 03:58 PM PST
After some initial hype as to just what Microsoft was going to include in their first major update for Windows Phone 7, a bucket of cold water has been dumped upon the heads of the hopeful. The hype seemed to begin when popular Windows Phone 7 guru @ChrisWalshie had this to say (as compiled by WPCentral):
Great stuff, right? Big fat updates that will bring the new platform to complete feature parity with iOS and Android in a single quarter? Such an amazing upgrade that it should be called Windows Phone 8? As a writer focused on Microsoft, can I say yes please any louder? As it turns out, sources that we trust a wee touch more have heard very different things, and we are inclined to believe them. Ina Fried said this just a few hours ago:
There you have it, carrier support and copy/paste. Two nice things, but nothing that calls for the story that Walshie is pushing. Either he knows something that has slipped by Ina (not likely), or he is having us all on. Time will tell, but you know where our money is.Mobilized [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| BlackBerry Playbook to support native HTML5 apps. Will problems follow? [TNW Gadgets] Posted: 01 Dec 2010 03:56 PM PST
This means that developers are going to be able to make full-fledged applications for the PlayBook using HTML5 and thus, PlayBook owners will be able to run native HTML5 apps on the tablet, a feature that isn’t even available on Apple’s iPad. The iPad is only able to run HTML5 in its browser. Of course, as is true with any code, there’s a risk for malicious actions. When you start talking about HTML5 design, that risk comes more heavily into play simply because of how closely an HTML5 application resembles a webpage in its construction. It’s a simple task to have an application call for code, even from a remote source. The test for RIM and the PlayBook, will be in how HTML5 apps are handled. It’s likely that RIM will have to rule the process with an iron fist akin to Apple’s App Store. With any luck, though, it will be a less painful process for the developers and we’ll get to see what the PlayBook can really do when put to the test.Twitter [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Android 2.2 now on more phones than 2.1 for first time [TNW Mobile] Posted: 01 Dec 2010 03:33 PM PST
According the the latest Platform Versions update, 2.2 is now on 43.4% of all Android phones, with 2.1 now on about 4% less phones at 39.6% – that’s a total for 2.1 + 2.2 of 83%. Android 1.5 and 1.6 continued to decline over the last two weeks, making up only 6.3% and 10.6% of all phones. Of course, we could be on the cusp of yet another version of Android (2.3), though no one knows the hard release date for that roll out. Even when it does hit, it will likely take months before it rolls out to most phones. Is Android’s supposed fragmentation getting better or worse? We’d frankly say better, because the faster 1.5 and 1.6 disappear forever, the better. Here are the latest charts showing how 2.1 and 2.2 have steadily grown since August of this year.
[Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
The Samsung Galaxy S smartphone range is continuing to perform well in South Korea after latest sales figures show 2.3 million Galaxy S variants have been sold since its launch five months ago.
Google has updated the 
The BBC’s iPlayer video-on-demand service has proved a big hit in the UK, providing UK license-fee payers will the opportunity to catch-up with all BBC programmes aired over a seven day period. In October, the service received 139 million requests, keeping it the most popular videon-on-demand service in the UK.
The 
There’s a small rumor that’s been making the rounds over the last few weeks about Google 
We’re 
I use Google Maps all the time, and not just for driving, but (mostly) for transit directions as well. Most of the time Google is pretty good at getting me where I’m going. Except if I wanted to ride a bike.
Email is great, except when a conversation in a mailing list topic (or the dreaded reply-to-all abuse) starts to get a little long in the tooth. You know the conversations you lost interest in after the third email and it’s getting onto about 25 messages now. Right, that’s why 
| You are subscribed to email updates from The Next Web To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment