Peon's Place

It’s worked for Microsoft with their Kinect unit, why not with Google?

It’s a new way to communicate. The mouse and keyboard were invented before the Internet even existed. Since then, countless technological advancements have allowed for much more efficient human computer interaction. Why then do we continue to use outdated technology? Introducing Gmail Motion — now you can control Gmail with your body.

Gmail Motion uses your computer’s built-in webcam and Google’s patented spatial tracking technology to detect your movements and translate them into meaningful characters and commands. Movements are designed to be simple and intuitive for people of all skill levels.

Read more about it here! It’s the best April First since.. well.. since last year, probably.

Apparently we’re having yet another new telephone area code in the San Francisco bay area. Go figure, all of the new cell phone plans outweigh the downward trend of home phone lines and complete lack of pager numbers. Represent the 669…! I can only see numerous sexual innuendos coming out of this.

The past four nights have combined a stunning total of around 14 hours of sleep, and my saving grace is this warm cup of cocoaespressocoffee that I make with our nifty machine upstairs. I’d blame Ron and the brunch that I went up to the city for on Saturday, which then led to breakfast on Sunday morning, but that’s honestly only a small section of the story at this part. On the flip-side, tonight is (tentatively) the first night I’ll be in my own bed since Thursday! You have no idea how I am looking forward to that.

Let’s see.. a couple weeks ago, when I had more free time (ahem), I passed through 10,000 gamer points on Xbox Live. It’s only fitting that the 80 point achievement for being crowned ruler of Albion in Fable III would be the achievement to push me past that milestone. I don’t think I’ve turned on my Xbox 360 since. I was going to purchase a Kinect, too.. but not if I don’t have time to play!

School’s going well. Stats is still a joke, and I have large projects in both my business and microeconomic theory classes, so that should be entertaining to compile together last-minute. Go me!

Lastly, are we tired of hearing about Charlie Sheen yet? Just when we get out and away from Lindsay Lohan, the media becomes fascinated with another drug/alcohol abused victim. I can’t wait to see who our new celebrity target will be once Charlie is completely washed up.

While I love Google, I do not love their need to compete with Apple in terms of number of applications their phones have, so that they can compare with the iPhone. I mentioned a year ago that there was going to be problems with them allowing pretty much every app to be auto-accepted and put up onto their marketplace.

Now Google has pulled 21 applications today, more on the way, that have been found to contain a Trojan virus, collecting information and data from your phone and sending it onto private servers for whatever they feel the need to use it for. Your number, your friends’ numbers, your web browsing habits, all owned by random companies that will do nothing short of misuse and abuse your calendar appointments and schedules, addresses, etc.

The applications in question on the Android Marketplace contain an exploit that, when downloaded, automatically root the Android handset. Not only that, they also contain an embedded .apk file that can accept remote code and upload device information (like your IMEI) to a server in California. The malicious bundles were published by user Myournet and some of the individual applications have been downloaded over 50,000 times each. Once alerted of the potential malware, Google investigated and removed the code from the Market and users handsets. Unfortunately, that doesn’t have any effect on data already compromised by downloaders of the rogue applications. Google has yet to publicly comment on the incident.

Amazon announced earlier that it’s allowing free movie streaming to its Amazon Prime members — those who pay $79 yearly for free 2-day shipping on qualified purchases. I mentioned last week on Redbox looking for a streaming partner. Do you think this is more or less likely the two hook up?

The initiative pits Amazon head-to-head with Netflix, which charges $7.99 a month for similarly unlimited streaming. The Amazon offering works out to $6.58 a month, and the shipping discounts remain the same. The discounts alone were enough to convince an estimated 4 million people to sign on to Amazon Prime, while Netflix has 20 million subscribers to its DVD and streaming business.

This means Amazon wins on price. However, their library is how large? As reported, 5000 movies and TV shows. Let’s compare that to Netflix, who now offers 11,563 streaming titles, including 1,587 TV show seasons and compilations, not episodes. If you want to be remove the ambiguity of TV shows and look at movies alone, that means they offer six times more titles than Amazon.

Also, Netflix has more hardware support. Everything that supports Amazon, also has Netflix built in. However Netflix also controls the gaming console network, with the Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony Playstation 3, and Ninteno Wii.; plus your Iphones / iPads / iPods, and plenty of internet-ready televisions and Bluray players with Netflix applications built in.

This is something I meant to post on a few days ago. Oops. :)

In a meeting with analysts, Redbox President Mitch Lowe reaffirmed the Coinstar-owned company’s plans to launch a Netflix “Watch Instantly” competitor this year. Coinstar CEO Paul Davis first confirmed the forthcoming service last year during an earnings call, though he would not specify whether the company’s Internet streaming service would utilize an all-you-can-eat pricing model or and a la carte model. Lowe has now confirmed that the service will be subscription-based, but he did not indicate price points for the service.

Redbox still has not revealed a partner for its upcoming streaming service, though rumors suggest Amazon may be the most likely candidate. Amazon already has some streaming-ready content, and this could be a nice pickup for both companies, and actually place a worthy competitor against Netflix (which I have nothing against, mind you).

Along with the new iPhone Nano that will supposedly be coming out this summer, Apple is reinventing the wheel, yet again, with different options for iPhone 5 models to come out this summer. A slide-out keyboard is among those ideas.

Now with someone with fatass sausage fingers like myself, who find typing on the iPhone’s touch screen to be as easy as coloring inside the lines of a second-grade coloring book while on a roller coaster, this presents a bit of intrigue. Hopefully it wouldn’t be made too cheaply. However Apple has declared that it will never present a full QWERTY keyboard to their iPhones, yet they’ve gone back on their word before.

The physical keyboard also won’t add any thickness to the phone, since the iPhone 5 is planned to be much slimmer already, closer to that is a current-day iPod Touch. We’ll see how it goes, but I’m skeptical!

So, how do you feel about a contract-free, whatever carrier you want, iPhone? Well it’s coming soon!

Our favorite Cupertino, CA company has been working on the iPhone Nano — a small version of the iPhone, with swappable SIM cards for different carriers. No more jailbreaking. No more expensive swap of internal parts. No more switching to a new carrier and having to buy a new phone.

The phone will have the chip of the iPhone 4 so as to save money, when the iPhone 5 is released this summer. The idea is to compete with Android phones, although I feel that it’s not necessary, as the iPhone 5 in a few months will rule the school.

A person who viewed an early version of the new iPhone stated that it’s lighter than the current version and has an edge-to-edge touch screen and virtual keyboard. Apple also may redo its MobileMe online storage service, which lets customers store data so calendars and contacts are available to multiple computers and other devices. The service now has a $99 annual fee, but could be made a free service that also would store photos, music and videos.

Here’s something that may interest those of you that work in some sort of medical field. I toyed with some Bio Feedback stuff last semester in my psychology course, but the primary function of this little device is wireless EKG transmitting. I’m trying to see if this tool could be worked as a modality and registered into my company’s system, so that we can see the EKG data within our software (I work at a medical imaging company, for those of you who are not already familiar).

View the video below! This is an amazing idea and is only the first step in a much more portable application.

Read the rest of this entry » iPhone ECG application, a…

We’ll soon be able to swipe our phones in the same place as we swipe our credit cards. Can anyone spell out “dangerous” and “identity/credit theft” with this one?

According to a report from Bloomberg this morning, Apple plans to add a mobile payment feature to future iOS devices. The service, which utilizes a Near-Field Communication (NFC) chip and a software solution, will be integrated into Apple’s next-generation iPhone and iPad, the report says.

Read the rest of this entry » iPhone 5 – Swipe to…

Starbucks is at it again, allowing you to pay for that new 31-ounce calorie-filled drink you decided would be a good idea at the time, with your iPhone or Blackberry. The program officially started today, albeit it had been tested in New York and California for some time now. But it’s here nationwide, allowing you to reload your Starbucks cards, purchase drinks and other goodies, etc.

Ahh, technology! Thankfully every Starbucks sends out free AT&T WiFi which iPhones automatically pick up.