South by Southwest lasts 10 days during the month of March. The festival takes place in Austin, TX. SXSW is broken up into three sections: Interactive, Film, and Music. Throughout the festival, many innovations come to light and old ideas are reinvented. Most days’ events begin with panels at 9:30 or 11 AM and end […]
Archive | Everything Else
Google Closes The Book On Reader
Microsoft was everyone’s favorite Evil Empire, but now Google is earning that nickname. Every time the search giant shuts down a service, it garners new bad sentiment amongst its user base. It started with Google Wave, which never had a big user base to begin with. Google Wave’s demise was widely reported because it was touted […]
Google Soon To Expand Google Now To More Platforms
There are a depressing number of non-Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) handsets in the wild, so it could be that many are unfamiliar with Google’s impressive virtual assistant, Google Now. While other virtual assistants require that you talk to them, Google Now passively collects data on you and learns a surprising amount. For example, opening Google Now on my recently […]
Bright Ideas In Indoor Location Awareness From Bytelight
Outdoor location awareness, otherwise known as GPS, has become ubiquitous. It started out as a way for the U.S. military to have location awareness and then spread to the rest of the world, literally. Whereas in-car GPS navigation used to be a luxury, it has become commonplace and has spread to smartphones. Between map apps […]
Firefox OS Extinguishes Spark of Interest
I’ve tried my best to be optimistic about the Firefox mobile operating system. Linux-based, open source, and from a group I respect. Mozilla, the parent company, has been making the rounds at Mobile World Congress to promote the fledgling OS. ZTE has announced the Open, the first Firefox OS phone, and it’s a good-looking bit […]
Who’s A Clever Boy, Then? Dognition Can Tell You Exactly That
If you ever make the mistake of asking a dog owner how smart his or her pet is, be prepared to spend at least half an hour listening to how Fido figured out where the treats are kept or when Rex got a new toy and immediately buried it in the garden to stop anyone […]
Today Is Safer Internet Day; How Safe Are You?
In 1999, the European Commission came up with the Safer Internet Programme with the goal of promoting safe and responsible use of the internet by children and young adults. In 2004, Safer Internet Day was developed as a special day each year to promote safer use of the internet and online technologies. That day has […]
Dungeon Crawling In Space, Earthbound Rat People, And Future Of Warhammer
For those who adore the grimdark Warhammer universes, both 40k and Fantasy, and anyone else that enjoys a fully fleshed out, tripped out, universe born in the 1980s, this news is for you: Space Hulk [yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sepWI5pMGSw’] An elite squad of eight foot tall space marines wearing terminator armor, effectively transforming the individuals into walking tanks, […]
Project Shield, Why Weren’t You My Gameboy?
NVIDIA recently announced its new portable gaming console running on Android’s Jelly Bean during a press conference, and this little gadget is too impressive for its own good. Project Shield, to put simply, is a controller screen combo (don’t throw it) with a built-in miniature audio system, and features the new Tegra 4, which NVIDIA touts as […]
Finally, I Can Upgrade — Google Releases Maps For iOS 6
One of the apps I use the most on my iPhone 4S is Google Maps. I use the app to navigate around traffic and direct my wife when she calls to tell me she doesn’t know how to get somewhere. Frequently, I drive between my home in Boston and my in-laws in New York City […]