Hasta La Gadget!

Google Hangouts has been a great improvement over Google’s previous fragmented services that would have users firing up different programs for different services. In Google Hangouts, you can chat, send images and initiate a video or voice chat at any time, but what if you need to know something that your friends can’t possibly know? Enter Google Helpouts. (more…)

Google Helpouts Brings Experts To Google+ Hangouts Platform original content from Ubergizmo.

Twitter’s Vine video sharing service has just achieved yet another notable milestone – they managed to hit the fabled 40 million registered users mark, definitely an achievement worth trumpeting about, considering how the number of registered users it had earlier this year in June (just a couple of months or so ago) stood at a relatively paltry 13 million. Of course, statistics can be massaged and interpreted in various manners, but that is not to detract away from this 40 million accomplishment for the Vine team, as it has been speculated that the huge surge in registered users had something to do with an Android-powered version of the app.

Not only that, you can have a gazillion registered users, but how many of them are actually active? That is the question to ask if you want to know the actual popularity level of a particular service. Earlier in June, MarketingLand check out Topsy analytics, where they noted that the number of Vine shares dropped by a dramatic amount on June 20th, which happened to be the same day that Instagram rolled out their rival video service. It seems that Instagram is still leading the pack today, where it has approximately half a dozen more “tweets” per day compared to Vine, although one also ought to take into consideration that Instagram does offer photo sharing services in addition to video.

Vine Achieves 40 Million Registered Users Milestone original content from Ubergizmo.

Holograms are an extremely interesting segment of technology which could be pursued further for more practical applications in real life, and while we have seen our fair share of holograms in science fiction movies, the real world is still lagging behind in such technology. However, advances have been made in the past, and now, a branch of the U.K. government intends to streamline select customer service functions, and have decided to introduce an automated visual assistant that can be considered to be a hologram of sorts. This ‘hologram’ is actually a digital assistant that is represented by an actress on a screen, and has been programmed to be accompanied by a set menu of answers in anticipation of various prompts.

I guess you can call this the first step to what Jor-El’s lifelike hologram was to Kal-El in Man of Steel. The virtual assistant happens to be projected on a “see-through screen”, although revealed images point otherwise – as the image has been spotted to appear on a normal flatscreen display. Voice prompts and touch screen functionality would enable visitors to make their choice from a range of menus as they attempt to find their way around the government facility. Do you prefer your holograms to come in the male or female gender, or it does not matter to you?

Virtual Receptionist ‘Hologram’ Presented By UK Government Office original content from Ubergizmo.

In-flight Internet has been around for some years already, but not all flights still offer this particular service. Not only that, you could more or less say that the in-flight Wi-Fi might not be fast enough to stream video content from sites including Netflix and the BBC’s iPlayer, but all of that might probably change by the time 2014 rolls around. According to communications regulator Ofcom, they are proposing to license a new satellite system for aircraft – as well as ships and trains, of course. Earth Stations on Mobile Platforms (ESOMPs) is capable of delivering connections up to 10 times faster compared to what one is can experience at the moment.

Britain’s airlines have yet to indicate whether they would sign up for this particular technology or not, although British Airways’ in-flight entertainment and technology manager, Richard D’Cruze, claimed that the airline was “closely monitoring developments in the connectivity market in both the satellite and direct air-to-ground technology areas”. Ofcom did mention that it has been working alongside its European counterparts for the past couple of years, where they will include France, Germany and Luxembourg, who happen to be in the process of piecing together their own regulations. I am quite sure that everyone would not mind having faster Internet many miles up in the air, no?

High Speed In-Flight Internet Possible By Next Year original content from Ubergizmo.

Samsung announced today that it is launching a new project called Junior Software Academy in South Korea. Under this project, the Korean giant plans to give software lessons to 10,000 students of ages between 11 and 17. Students will be able to attend these lessons after school or during the weekends. Samsung believes that this project will help children learn basic software technologies and will help them in becoming “fresh sprouts of the software industry.”

These software classes will be offered to students at 500 junior and elementary schools in Korea. Samsung will also conduct various fun programs to capture the juniors’ attentions. One such program is the Junior Software Academy Camp which was held last week. Children were given the chance to learn software languages used in robots. Most children love robots, for them activities such as these are likely to be fun learning experiences. The company says that it is developing tailored teaching materials in software to fit the level of children and teenagers. It will also hold software competitions to pit students against each other. The project may shape the future of a lot of these children, who may someday become successful as well as influential figures in the global software industry.

Samsung Launches After-School Junior Software Academy In Korea original content from Ubergizmo.