Current news items regarding technology, tech companies, the Internet, the government, etc.
Google is threatening to pull out of China because it recently discovered that the e-mail accounts (Gmail) of human rights activists had been accessed.
While this is just a threat at this point, we’d like to see Google actually follow through on this, and apply their company motto (“Don’t Be Evil”) in a real and very significant way.
Skype is partnering with TV makers to include their telephony service into TVs in 2010. So far, Panasonic and LG are signed up: LG Electronics will add Skype to its NetCast enabled displays, while Panasonic will add it to select sets equipped with its VieraCast services.
Of course, you will still need an active Internet connection in order to make use of this service, but it’ll certainly make it more convenient and comfortable to make calls from your sofa. It will be interesting to see how well this actually works.
If you follow any sort of news, you’ll know that Google announced their Nexus One phone running their Android-supported mobile OS. What’s really unique and new here is that Google is selling the handset directly, and not the carrier.
Here’s what you need to know about the phone: …
Google Releases Nexus One Android Phone – What You Need to KnowRead More »
CES 2010, the Consumer Electronics Show put together by the CEA officially opens its doors on Thursday in Las Vegas, NV. However, many press events kick off today at the show, so stay tuned as we bring you the most important news and new gadgets.
One day you may be able to wear glasses that translate other languages in real-time and display them onto the glasses’ lenses so you can read it, if NEC is successful.
Called a retinal imaging display, the glasses incorporate a microphone and displays language as expressions. Surprisingly, NEC plans to have a product out in 2010, although it’ll probably be prohibitively expensive for the general public.
I wonder though about how efficient this would be in a crowded room? We tend to underestimate how powerful our brains are at doing things like filtering noise and speech, even in a crowded room.
Yup, the title pretty much says it all. Ship them your old Warner Bros DVD movies and for a replacement fee (starting around $8 per disc), they will send you Blu-ray versions of those flicks.
I’m surprised at the low number of titles and you should consider first whether the upgrade price is worth it. You may not really get much additional value in the Blu-ray title.
You can find the service at the DVD2Blu website.
If you’re a reader of this gadget blog, then there’s a greater than 99% chance that you shop online. A lot! While for the most part, it’s a positive experience for most people – the convenience of home, the speed of checkout and of course, the great prices, there is a darkside – the risk of being scammed or cheated by an online vendor.
You can be safe shopping online. Follow the tips in this article to quickly become an expert on the subject. Then make sure to pass it onto your friends and family. If these ethically-challenged vendors don’t get any bites or sales, then they won’t be around for very long.
Cnet has a nice gallery of photos with the brand new Dreamliner 787‘s inaugural flight and landing at Boeing Field in Seattle. I like how the wings curve up – not something you normally see in a commercial airliner.
It may be sleeker, but of course, it’s no A380 (size-wise)!
Head-up Displays (HUDs) are not exactly a cutting-edge technology any more. However, they still demand a great deal of space. A new HUD based on holographic projection could be squeezed into a space as small as a car’s side mirror.
Just imagine being able to see additional data, graphics or other warnings overlaid on what’s actually in your side mirror or perhaps your rearview mirror. What may be better or at least additional is a HUD display on the windscreen itself.
We may not have reached a real substantive climate agreement in Copenhagen this past week, but thankfully this is not stopping companies around the world from making steps towards improving our dire environmental state. Take Panasonic for example, which is testing out ideas for an eco-friendly house that may actually produce more energy than it uses. Now that would be novel!
Aptly dubbed the Eco Ideas House, it includes things like vacuum insulation, LED lighting, hydrogen fuel cells, and of course, smart monitoring & control systems [pictured]. The folks at DVICE took a tour and wrote about it.
