by bintangkecil on Thursday, March 18th, 2010 | News, Tech/Gadget | No Comments

Google Inc. is moving its technology quest into TV industry. Some big partners has lined up for this Internet’s giant move: Intel Corp, Sony Corp, and Logitech International SA.

The joint effort, which is in its preliminary stages, includes software to help users navigate among Web-based offerings on television sets and serve as a platform for other developers to target in creating new programs, these people say. The technology could be included with future TVs, Blu-ray players or set-top boxes, they added.

As expected, the new platform will be based on Google’s Android OS and will be opened up to outside developers to create apps that combine the Web with your HDTV via Google’s Chrome browser. The article speculates that Intel will use this as an opportunity to increase its Atom processor’s foothold in the home theater. Sony would presumably make use of the Google TV software and Intel’s processor know how for its TVs and connected home theater devices. And Logitech would be the provider of accessories for the new platform like Google TV-friendly keyboards and remotes.

The Wall Street Journal this month reported that Google is testing a new TV-search service with Dish Network Corp. that is designed to allow users to find shows on the satellite-TV service as well as video from Web sites such as Google’s YouTube. The March 8 article noted that Google has been talking to partners about adapting Android—the operating system it developed for cellphones—for TVs and set-top boxes.

Though none of the companies cited would officially comment for the story (which instead relies of anonymous sources “with knowledge” of the project), it says that the first devices running Google TV could be coming out as soon as this summer.

The Journal also reported that the company has begun to target the TV market with a nascent ad-brokering business called Google TV. Some participants in the effort are using that phrase to refer to the software platform for televisions, though it doesn’t appear that the technology has been formally named.

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by bintangkecil on Thursday, March 18th, 2010 | Business, News, Tech/Gadget | No Comments

“I will create an Avatar movie portrait from your picture for $5″
“I will be your wake up call for a week for $5″
“I will write your wedding vows for $5″

Those are few things that people willing to do for only $5 on Fiverr website.

A website called fiverr.com is a site that allows you to buy and sell tasks for $5.

The genesis of the site was purely practical, says Micha Kaufman, co-founder and CEO. The entrepreneur says he was irked by having to convert a chart in Microsoft Word into Excel. The task was too small to hire a separate employee or contractor, but large enough to be annoying and relatively time-consuming. Although sites like odesk.com help assemble workers for projects, Mr. Kaufman wanted something smaller in scale.

To keep it simple, Fiverr removed negotiations from the site and decided $5 was the sweet spot for pricing. The micro, micro, micro economy launched less than a month ago and already has 5,000 gigs posted. The site is Israel-based but draws users worldwide.

Some sellers’ offerings seem dramatically undervalued, such as the posts from a doctor who answers medical questions in plain English. The more creative gigs, like songwriting, also have taken Mr. Kaufman by surprise. “It went beyond our imaginations,” he says.

The $5 asking price ensures that there’s an investment by both the buyer and seller, but not a large one. “There is a tendency of others to think that if you give something out for free, it’s worth nothing,” Mr. Kaufman says. He would not elaborate on any future plans to expand to gigs that cost, say, $10 or more, but says there “are surprises” in store.

Although buyers pay $5, sellers receive $4, after payment-processing and Fiverr fees, which is the primary way the site makes money. PayPal is the payment method and posting a gig is free.

The site is a good match for this economy. Buyers are looking for cheap prices and sellers are often unemployed or underemployed, seeking freelance income.

Tags: fiverr, fiverr website, fiverr.com, Micha Kaufman, paypal, the things people do for $5, things people do for $5

by wildcherry on Friday, March 12th, 2010 | News, Tech/Gadget | No Comments

A one-sentence e-mail from Apple PR Thursday afternoon confirming the hour on Friday that buyers in the U.S. can start ordering Apple iPad,the company’s latest creation — 8:30 a.m. ET, 5:30 a.m. PT — had generated more than 100 pre-dawn headlines Friday morning.

SET YOUR ALARM CLOCKS, screamed 9to5Mac, as if by sleeping in you might miss out.

The New York Times offered relatively sober advice on HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT IPAD FOR YOU. “If you’re already readying your tent and fold-up chairs to wait outside an Apple Store for the company’s latest offering,” it begins, “then please read on.”

In SHOULD YOU PRE-ORDER AN IPAD?, the Wall Street Journal listed five reasons — from early glitches to future price cuts — it might make more sense to wait.

That suggestion that triggered cries of derision from TUAW’s Erica Sadun in IT’S COOL TO BE AN EARLY IPAD ADOPTER. “If you don’t hop aboard the adoption train,” she tells readers, “you’re never going to get to Techsville.”

With analysts predicting shortages and Apple warning customers that even a pre-order may not guarantee first-day delivery, you can expect lines outside the Apple Stores come April 3.

Check in here for our live coverage of the scene outside the glass cube on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue.

Tags: apple ipad, iPad, ipad official launch, order ipad, preorder ipad

by wildcherry on Thursday, March 11th, 2010 | News, Tech/Gadget | No Comments

Google Map users now can also search for transportation options by the “bicycling” option which will show the bike routes to take.

Google Maps Bike Routes guides are as follows:

• Dark green lines to represent bike trails with no motor vehicles
• Light green lines to show streets with bike lanes
• Dashed green lines to show other streets “recommended” for cyclists.

Tags: bicycling, bike, Google Maps, google maps bike, google maps bike route, how to use google map for biking route

by wildcherry on Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 | News, Tech/Gadget | No Comments

Sony announced that they expect to ship the Playstation Move or PS Move this fall and plans to offer multiple kits to accommodate different levels of users, including just the Move by itself for those who already own an Eye, a Starter Kit that also bundles the camera and a game, and a full PS3 bundle that includes the console and everything needed to play. Prices aren’t fully ready, but Sony has already said it expects a full Starter Kit to cost below $100.

The Move comes after Sony watch for years Nintendo able to sell millions of game console due to the simplicity of its Wii controller that enable people of all ages to be able to join on the video game fun and thrill.

Tags: sony move, sony move controller, sony move launch date, sony move picture, sony move vs wii motion, sony ps3 new controller

by wildcherry on Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 | News, Tech/Gadget | No Comments

Today, Google have launch a new online store for integrated business applications. The Google Apps Marketplace allows Google Apps customers to easily discover, deploy and manage cloud applications that integrate with Google Apps. More than 50 companies are now selling applications across a range of businesses, including:

Tags: apps marketplace, google app marketplace, google app store, google apps store, google marketplace

by wildcherry on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 | News, Tech/Gadget | No Comments

According to a new Stanford University study, iPhone users are becoming so reliant on their iPhones that they are actually reporting being addicted to their Apple smartphones.

Almost half of the respondents in the 200 person study acknowledged an iPhone addiction.

Here are some highlights from the Stanford study:

• Only six percent of students said they weren’t at all addicted to the device, whereas a full 10 percent said they were fully addicted, and 34 percent gave themselves a ‘four’ on the five-point scale.
• Thirty-two percent of respondents who didn’t report feeling completely addicted did worry that they would eventually become addicted.
• Eighty-five percent of those surveyed reported using their iPhones as a watch while 89 percent use it as an alarm clock.
• Seventy-five percent actually confessed to sleeping with their iPhone in bed next to them.
• It isn’t just phone and clock features making the iPhone so indispensable. As LiveScience notes, ‘15 percent of those surveyed said the iPhone was turning them into a media addict; 30 percent called it a ‘doorway into the world’; 25 percent found the phone ‘dangerously alluring’ and 41 percent said losing their iPhone would be ‘a tragedy.”
• However, as students are using the iPhones to arrange their social lives, they must be careful to not let their addiction create a backlash: Seven percent of the students reported roommates or partners who felt neglected due to the respondent’s iPhone use, giving rise to the term ‘iPhone widow’ for those people who feel as though they’ve lost their significant other to the iPhone.
• Many of the reported ’side-effects’ of iPhone use are positive as 70 percent reported being more organized, 54 percent were more productive and 74 percent just felt ‘cool’ having an iPhone.

Interestingly, the iPhone is seen less as an outside device and more of an extension of the person due to the amount of personal information held on it and the ways in which students use it to organize and facilitate their social lives. Researchers were surprised by how readily students seem to anthropomorphize the device.

Source:Huffpost

Tags: apple, blackberry addict, blackberry addiction, iphone, iphone addict, iphone addiction, Iphone Addiction Is Real, Iphone Addiction Study, Iphone Dependency, Smartphone, Stanford University Study

by wildcherry on Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 | News, Tech/Gadget | No Comments

A Verizon outage today interrupted customers’ access to data services, such as email and Internet.

According to a Verizon spokesperson:

“Verizon Wireless has confirmed that data service outages affected eastern U.S. customers for up to four hours early today. The company blamed the outage, which affected some users between 4 a.m. and 8 a.m. EST today, on defective software in one of its data centers.”

The outage comes at a time when Verizon is jostling with AT&T for shares of the US market. AT&T, of course, has outage problems of its own: Heavy traffic from iPhone users has bogged down the AT&T data network. Meanwhile, there are widespread concerns that the forthcoming Apple iPad, which will utilize a 3G connection, could bring AT&T data speeds to a screeching halt.

Tags: BlackBerry Outage, Blackberry Outage Today, Verizon Data Outage, Verizon Network Down, Verizon Outage, Verizon Wireless Outage

by wildcherry on Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 | News, Tech/Gadget | No Comments

Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Bloom Energy holds a press event Wednesday morning where the company is unveil details on its Bloom Box product.

The event is being held at eBay’s San Jose, Calif., headquarters, which has been running a test batch of Bloom Boxes for the past nine months. Former secretary of state and current Bloom Energy board member Colin Powell is slated to speak, along with Bloom Energy founder K.R. Sridhar and venture capitalist John Doerr, who currently sits on President Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board.

Here’s a graphic explanation how the bloom box energy works:

Here’s some info about Bloom box:

- 3 major value propositions: lower energy costs, clean power, and reliable power.

- First point: The box has a 3-5 year payback period, and fixed energy prices for the next ten years.

- Second point: the carbon footprint is 50% cleaner than the grid and 100% renewable.

- Third point: 24/7/365 power with always-on modular architecture. If a box or unit has to be fixed, it will still generate power, like a server farm.

- They have created 11,000,000 kilowatts so far.

- Foundation partners/customers: Coca-Cola, Bank of America, eBay, Cox Enterprises, FedEx, Walmart, Staples, and Google.

- They are now going to do a panel with some of their top customers, discussing the Bloom Boxes.

Tags: bloom box, bloom box energy, bloom box energy press conference, bloom box info, bloom boxes, bloom energy, bloom energy box details, bloom energy press conference, how the bloom box energy works

by wildcherry on Monday, February 22nd, 2010 | News, Tech/Gadget | No Comments

ARCHOS the award-winning company in portable media players now introduces a new concept: Archos 7 ‘the Internet Media Tablet’. In the near future we will see wether Archos 7 is really a google Android based tablet.

The ARCHOS 7 is the jewel of this new range, redefining media on the move and offering customer uncompromised access to the Internet, Media content and TV…in a handheld device..

The ARCHOS 7 features a incredibly high capacity internal hard drive from 160 GB to 320 GB, in slim and sleek enclosures. Everything will fit in, and you can still have room for some more.
You can download a vast number of music and video from the unique selection of renowned movie and music partners assembled in the Media Club. So that you have plenty of movies to watch when you’re away on a trip or in vacations.

You can play movies in HD or DVD quality for the richest media experience on the go.

Tags: android tablet, archos 7, archos android tablet, archos tablet, Google Android