Hasta La Gadget!

© Edmund Sumner

Architects: Wilkinson Eyre Architects
Location: Olympic Park North (Stop M), London Borough of Hackney, London E9, UK

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While we expect Amazon to refresh its Kindle Fire tablet sooner rather than later, Demos Parneros, president of US retail for Staples, has told Reuters that the online book-seller has bigger plans. Amazon apparently aims to introduce five or six new devices (or SKUs, stock-keeping units), though as noted by Android Central‘s Phil Nickinson, these could thin out to just two tablet models and several storage variants. According to the exec, the tablets will come in a range of sizes and would include a new ten-inch device — going directly against another popular tablet. No word on whether these five or six device would include a smartphone, as screen sizes get increasingly closer. Amazon has also announced that it’ll be creating a new R&D hub in London, focusing on its services and APIs for TVs, consoles, smartphones and PCs, aimed squarely at rolling these out across the globe. The original Kindle Fire — and its Android app store — is still not available outside of America. However, public plans for the new Amazon base currently center on relocating both Lovefilm and Pushbutton to this new hub. However, it’s been about a year; about time for Europe to get a taste of Amazon’s wallet-friendly tab.

Filed under: Tablet PCs

Amazon plans for ‘five or six’ new tablets, will include 10-inch model, says Staples president originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Jul 2012 08:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I’ve always thought one the most interesting landmarks in England was the London Eye. I would call it a ferris wheel, as I think most people from the US would, but it’s simply known as the Eye in the UK. A former British Olympic athlete named Daley Thompson has come up with a plan to help use the massive ferris wheel to promote the London Olympic Games kicking off soon.

Working with EDF Energy, the wheel’s sponsor, an algorithm will sort through positive and negative tweets sent with the tag #Energy2012. The wheel will be lit up depending on the portion of positive comments sent with the tag. The algorithm was designed by experts on sentiment analysis. For example, if 75% of the tweets are positive, 75% of the wheel will be lit. The more positivity, the more lights.

The wheel will also be lit up in various color patterns to celebrate major sporting moments of the day. If you want help control how much of the massive wheel is lit, you need to start tweeting when the games kick off. The last show will be held each night at 2100 BST that the Olympics are underway.

[via BBC]

Crowd-sourced art projects? You knew Google would get there sooner rather than later. And with the cooperative backing of the UK’s Tate Modern gallery, artists Chris Milk and Aaron Koblin have been able to do just that, taking the surrealist concept of “the exquisite corpse” — an evolving word tree exercise devised by early 20th century surrealists – and transmuting it into The Exquisite Forest, an animation-based collaboration that lives on the web. The exhibit, which kicks off July 23rd and should run for about six months, is yet another of Mountain View’s Chrome Experiments and encourages any aspiring designer to log-in to the dedicated portal and contribute to existing trees (read: branching visual stories) or seed one of their own. You can check out a brief video explanation of the project’s inception after the break. But if this concept already has your creative juices flowing to the point of flooding, why not just hit up the source below and help water this multimedia garden.

Continue reading The Exquisite Forest: crowdsourced art made possible by Chrome (video)

Filed under: Internet, Software

The Exquisite Forest: crowdsourced art made possible by Chrome (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Jul 2012 19:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The mapping scene has seen plenty of activity lately — what with Apple ditching Google to launch its own service while the latter continues to layer on improvements such as better walking directions and more Street View coverage for its maps. Now a new app called “Recce” is trying to elbow its way into the conversation by using a free, searchable 3D mapping system that not only serves up location-based services but also location-based games. Named after military slang for “reconnaissance,” Recce is the brainchild of former Psygnosis co-founder Ian Hetherington and Google engineering director Rian Liebenberg, who formed London-based developer eeGeo. The app works by pulling together a slew of data feeds from sources such as map providers and social networking services to provide an interactive 3D view of an area. It can also be used to update services like Twitter so your followers can know exactly where you were when you saw Justin Johnson, er, Bieber speeding away from the paparazzi in his chrome Fisker Karma. Do note that data is limited to central London at the moment, though San Francisco and New York are slated to get their 3D closeup next.

Filed under: Cellphones, GPS, Tablet PCs, Software

New Recce 3D map app offers location-based services and games, Sim City possibilities abound originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Jul 2012 09:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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