Hasta La Gadget!

With more and more phones featuring beefy processors, GPS, HSPA data, and compasses, augmented reality apps are ready to take off in a big way. Layar, in particular, is shaping up to be the platform of choice from which to overlay information onto the streets that surround you. This is great for serendipitous discovery of cafes, ATMs, real estate, and even jobs, but at what expense? Recently, we casually joked about the ability to “hunt down tweeps with cold, calculated precision.” Now a Dutch crew from Beste Product took up the task by giving Layar and its “Famous People Finder” feature a real-world test on the streets of Amsterdam with the help of Samsung’s i7500 Galaxy. The results are unsettling as demonstrated by the celebrities, including Brad Pitt’s, reaction to being discovered. Is our near-term future to be filled with people laughing maniacally while pointing their cellphones at each other? The video is in Dutch, but the reaction that unfolds at 2 minutes and 40 seconds is universally human. See it after the break.

[Via @Dutchcowboy]

Continue reading Video: The unsettling truth about our augmented reality future, starring Brad Pitt

Video: The unsettling truth about our augmented reality future, starring Brad Pitt originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Sep 2009 07:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

We love looking to the future here at Engadget. And while real, paper books hold a special place in our heart, we’re fairly certain no one will accuse us of being Luddites for scoffing at a recent development at a Boston prep school. James Tracy, the headmaster of Cushing Academy, says that he sees books as an “outdated technology,” and to that end, he’s taken the drastic and expensive step of ridding the school’s library of every single one of its books. Replacing the books will be a high tech “learning center,” housing three flat screen televisions, laptops, 18 e-readers, and a coffee bar. The project — which is costing somewhere in the neighborhood of $500,000 — is one of the first of its kind. So, excuse us for our cynicism, but unless there are only 18 students at Cushing Academy, we’re pretty sure the e-reader supply is going to come up short.

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Handhelds

Boston prep school nixes all the books in its library, replaces them with 18 e-readers originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 05 Sep 2009 08:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

The historians once pontificated that we’d all be cruising about in flying cars right around the year 2000, and while that whole Y2K fiasco threw us a tad behind schedule, it looks like the future may actually still be upon us. Parajet, the same company responsible for that downright unnerving personal flying machine we peeked back in ’05, has now placed its long-awaited SkyCar up for pre-order. Said vehicle has evolved quite dramatically over the years, but now that dollars (er, pounds) are being dropped on it, we have to assume that the design is near final. The vehicle is completely street legal and can accelerate to 62mph in just 4.2 seconds, thus making it the world’s first “usable, road-legal flying car.” If you’re champing at the bit to be the first on your block with one, you can drop £10,000 ($16,381) now and pay the remaining £50,000 ($81,905) just before it ships in “late 2010.” Of course, we’re not making any promises about it actually shipping, but that’s a risk you’ll have to take.

[Via AutoblogGreen]

Filed under: Transportation

Parajet SkyCar flying vehicle evolves, now ready for pre-orders originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 19 Jul 2009 14:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Are you fully prepared to live in one company’s most likely inaccurate and yet still totally awesome vision of the future? If not, check out the video after the break. ASUS tossed together its ideas into a “Seamless Experience” showing at its Computex 2009 booth. Apparently the future involves a lot of interactive countertops — a sort of pervasive Surface-lite, which presents interactive, relevant info for objects placed on it. The tech also facilitates interaction between devices placed near each other, and can even capture data from a plain ol’ piece of paper and integrate it into the system. Sure, it’s been shown before, but we’re sure once enough companies come up with this idea independently they’ll be able to form two warring factions and fend off consumer adoption with a format war for years to come.

Read – ASUS PR
Read – Video from NewGadgets.de

Continue reading ASUS ‘Seamless Experience’ is the best conception of the future we’ve seen in the past five minutes

Filed under: Displays, Household

ASUS ‘Seamless Experience’ is the best conception of the future we’ve seen in the past five minutes originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 14 Jun 2009 02:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

There’s nothing like a cheesy tech company promo video to make us all feel all warm and fuzzy with the promise of amazing sci-fi tech to come, and Microsoft’s Future vids are a pinnacle of the form, what with their vision of a pervasive natural computing interface. Of course, strident idealism is a ripe target for mockery, and the kids at Sarcastic Gamer are at it again, taking the piss out of the last Future spot with their own dysfunctional narration. Grins after the break!

[Thanks, Sean]

Continue reading Microsoft Future: hallucinating icons will be an everyday occurrence

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Microsoft Future: hallucinating icons will be an everyday occurrence originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 May 2009 14:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments