Hasta La Gadget!

With Facebook having gone public not too many months ago, efforts such as the TV-Style Ad sales being reported today aren’t as impossible to imagine as they once were. Speaking with Bloomberg today are a set of anonymous sources suggesting that Facebook is close to a deal that would begin selling TV-Style commercials, whatever that may entail, by the end of the year. These ad spots would cost a cool $2.5 million each for a full days’ run on the site.

This sort of deal is not unprecedented, following sites like YouTube in creating streaming ad spots before the content they otherwise present. Here though, it’s not entirely clear how Facebook would place such spots in front of their otherwise mixed set of media.

According to the information sent by the sources at hand, these video spots would last 15 seconds and would appear either over or inside a user’s main Facebook news feed. These commercials are said to be prepared on a 1-day basis, with a price range topping out at $2.5 million and starting at $1 million.

What do you think about such a deal? When you head to YouTube and find yourself face-to-face with a 15 second ad-spot, do you wait around for it to finish, watch it, turn your face away, or skip the media altogether? How would you react if a similar spot appeared in front of non-video content inside Facebook?

Facebook TV-style ads tipped to appear by end of 2013 is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Intel has dropped controversial plans to outfit its upcoming web TV set-top box with a face-recognition camera, admitting that a combination of privacy concerns and performance issues forced its hand. The original goal had been to use a combination of age, gender, and other identification features to track viewers of the web TV service and tailor advertising to suit; however, Intel’s web TV chief Erik Huggers told the WSJ, that’s now been abandoned, at least in the first-gen box.

According to Huggers, Intel Vice President and General Manager of Intel Media, the camera system did not work as well in low-light settings as the company hoped, a vital feature given the sort of environments in which people generally watch TV. Intel had never detailed its exact system, though concepts by the company had been demonstrated publicly built into set-top boxes.

The goal had been to endear Intel’s fledgling on-demand and live TV service to content owners, by promising them far more comprehensive viewer metrics on which promotional campaigns could be based. Whereas existing advertising takes a relatively blunt-brush approach to who is watching what, Intel’s system could have pinpointed demographics down to relatively narrow age brackets, tracked the gender of multiple viewers, and more.

Intel Web TV viewer-tracking demo:

That, coupled with on-demand access to different advertising content, could have allowed Intel to show tailored playlists of commercials depending on who was watching at any one time. The system could also have made suggestions for other shows the viewer might enjoy, based on their age and gender along with what they’d already been watching, in effect supercharging Netflix-style recommendations with demographic awareness.

Unsurprisingly, even with Intel insisting its eye-on-the-sofa would take a relatively vague view of who was watching, privacy advocates weren’t impressed with the scheme. Those privacy questions were another part of Intel’s decision to backtrack on the camera, Huggins conceded.

The as-yet-unnamed service – rumored to be dubbed Intel OnCue when it launches – is currently in testing in the homes of around 2,500 Intel employees, Huggins says. Despite rumored struggles to secure content licensing, which Intel has insisted will not affect a 2013 launch, the web TV chief is confident that the service will find favor among consumers, not least because of its comprehensive cloud DVR system.

That, it’s expected, will include full recording of all programming into a cloud-based store, with access to at least three days of retrospective viewing. Subscribers will be able to rewind any channel they choose should they miss something, even if they didn’t specifically mark it for recording.

Intel web TV spy camera plans axed is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

(Credit: Jetman.com)

Next time you’re stuck in traffic, just imagine soaring above it all with a personal jetpack like Yves Rossy. The Swiss adventurer just made his debut U.S. flight in grand style.

Jetman, as Rossy is known, appeared alongside a vintage B-17 bomber at the EAA AirVenture air show in Oshkosh, Wis., in his first public flight in the U.S.

He flew in formation with the bomber, coming within several feet of the fuselage, before parachuting to a safe landing.

Jetman has been thrilling crowds and aviators around the world with his custom-made jet suit, zooming across the English Channel in 2008.

Related stories

• Man with jetpack races actual jets (video)
• Jet-powered wing propels solo flight (pictures)
• Terrafugia to develop vertical takeoff flying car

The wing measures 6.5 feet across and is powered by four JetCat P200 turbines with 48 pounds of thrust each. The suit’s average speed is 124 mph.

Rossy, a vet… [Read more]

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When we first got a desktop 3D printer at Engadget headquarters, we made a Weighted Companion Cube. And then a Mario figure. What can we say? We like to start small. Ivan Sentch, a programmer living in Auckland, is a bit more ambitious with his projects — he sat down and started printing a replica of a 1961 series II Aston Martin DB4 on his second-generation Solidoodle, piece by piece. Sentch has been working on the project off-and-on since Christmas of last year, and is now finished with around 72 percent of the body. Once finished, he’ll make a fiberglass mold of the print. Check Sentch’s blog in the source link below for some insight into the process.

Filed under: Peripherals, Transportation, Alt

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Via: Solidoodle

Source: Replica DB4 Project

Creepy drone spying is no longer just the purview of the military in the United States. The Federal Aviation Administration recently cleared two unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for commercial use surveilling the Alaskan coast, marking a sharp turn for the future of domestic drone use.

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