While my dreams of a television action series featuring Barack Obama fighting intergalactic criminals in space have once again been put on hold, science has happily given us the next best thing: Obama, from Space.
Google’s Earth and Maps-making satellite, the Geo-Eye-1, was 423 miles above the earth’s surface yesterday, taking shots of President Obama’s historical inauguration ceremony. It was a clear day, and the shots are pretty impressive, featuring millions of viewers packed into the Washington Mall.
Check out more, higher res photos at the official Geo-Eye site.
Here they are: Alleged spy photos of the second generation Android cellphone, the thinner, shinier, and totally lickable T-Mobile G2 made by HTC. It has no keyboard and its back looks oh-so-soap-bar-smooth:
As you can see, it has a 3.2 megapixel camera. According to our source, it will come in mid-May. Currently it has an interface “very similar” to the G1. We will see what happens this spring, but if true, this thing looks like a winner.
This article was written on February 07, 2006 by CyberNet.
If you haven’t checked your GMail Inbox lately then you might want to. News has been fluttering around the web about Google integrating Google Talk into GMail. This will currently save your conversations online in a special ‘folder’ called “Chat”. Eventually this will evolve into an online chat system that duplicates the simplicity of Google Talk. Here is the feature set straight from Google:
But wait, there’s more…
Add contacts and invite your friends to chat from Quick Contacts
See when your friends are online
Set your status to busy, sleepy, angry or whatever. Even sneezy.
Get Google Talk to make free voice calls too. It’s completely synchronized with Quick Contacts
Go off the record when you’re chatting so nothing gets saved to anyone’s Gmail account
While we’re primed and ready for Android to take over the mobile marketplace, it looks like Steve Horowitz, Google’s engineering director for the upstart OS, has other thoughts — he’s bailing out for Coupons, Inc. Yep, it’s a coupons site. We have no idea why Horowitz thinks a company working on a “digital coupons and promotions platform” is more exciting that leading Android’s development, but he’s certainly jumped ship before — he started his career in Apple’s Macintosh group before a stint at Be, and prior to taking the reins at Google he was on the teams at Microsoft that shipped Windows Media Center Edition, UltimateTV, and WebTV. We’ll be honest, those all sound infinitely more interesting than doling out coupons, but maybe dude just really loves typing in instant savings codes. As for Android, it doesn’t sound like Andy Rubin’s going anywhere, so we’re certain work will continue with nary a hiccup — or at least we’re hoping it does, because we’re getting pretty hungry for some Cupcake.
This past year, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs began to focus on priorities other than tech. Who will fill their winged sandals and become the new Gadget Gods?
These next gods will, like their predecessors, be people whose professional and private lives, and even personal appearance, are of equal importance to hordes of obsessed nerds. They’re people whose creativity and willpower are presumed to steer the course of personal technology, with legions of engineers and programmers and designers and manufacturing experts carrying out their vision. The key is putting themselves out for all the public to behold, with the hopes of becoming revered by apostles who buy anything they unveil. Seeing as we’re running low on golden calves, let’s check out the current options:
APPLE Tim Cook People say Cook is the man who makes the beautiful products turn into a beautiful pile of money, and he actually took over Apple when Jobs was recovering from his first surgery. A southern gentleman, avid cyclist, iron-fisted boss, mysterious loner, emotionless decider—man, Cook is so easy to reduce to two-word stereotypical descriptors, he’s bound for godhood. Even his name comes packaged in a suave but unforgettable two syllables. The catch of course is that he can’t ascend the mighty throne of Apple until the big cheese retires or bows out due to health. Cook’s trod the boards at Stevenotes before, but now he’s holding back—or being held back—perhaps because if he becomes big boss, he’ll need a fresh start. All eyes not on Steve are on this guy. Can he fill the shoes left open and be the forceful visionary that Jobs is? Chance of Godhood? 75% with a few variables we’d rather not think about
Phil Schiller Schiller has helped sell Apple products since forever, but the general impression is that he’s best used as a right-hand man, a Boy Wonder to the real Batman. The mullet/beer gut combo probably doesn’t do wonders for his public image, either, though “death diving” from 30 feet up like he did back in ’99 isn’t a bad way to entertain the fanboys. It’s easy to forget that Phil used to be involved in product development, including notebooks, and some even credit him for the addition of the iPod’s clickwheel. We also hear that the man can kick some ass behind the scenes. He might have what it takes to be the next product don of Apple, but the current hierarchy won’t make it easy for him. Chance of Godhood? 35% assuming the Apple board is thinking like we’re thinking
MICROSOFT Steve Ballmer The Monkey Man act may work to get attention, to rally your troops and put fear in your enemies, but it’s too easy to make fun of in Photoshop. This kind of attention has taken Ballmer pretty far along the road to godhood, but the public doesn’t often see the quieter, shrewder Ballmer that we know exists. The key is this: He is not a code nerd, but a Harvard-educated marketing-and-sales guy. Being able to climb inside the mind of the Average Joe, typically oriented around useful features instead of sheer software power, is what Microsoft needs to limit bloat in product design. If Windows 7 is a success, we’ll see the Bruce Banner in this Hulk, but if it’s not, it’ll be “BALLMER SMASH!!!!” and the end of Microsoft. Chance of Godhood? 85% assuming Windows 7 erases the terrible memory of Vista
Robbie Bach Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices boss has Xbox, Zune, Media Center and a lot of other potentially tasty toys in his workshop, and he’s rumored to be the man who would replace Ballmer. What’s most important here? His group accounts for most of the Microsoft products that don’t suck. Word is, though, that the limited profitability of his group, today, limits the amount of respect he gets internally. We say the rest of the company should stop and see what he’s doing right. He certainly understands the art of the keynote, strutting around and working the crowd with the shoulders-forward energy of a college football coach. He may be too good at sticking to the script, though. His cautious replies may be good for stockholders, but you can’t inspire the masses without a little bit o’ crazy. Chance of Godhood? 70%, higher if he is heard matter-of-factly admitting that Windows Mobile sucks
SONY Sir Howard Stringer Usually you get the “sir” appended to your name after you live a wild and crazy life in the public eye, but this guy is only more and more in the spotlight each year. When he talks he brings delightful controversy and charisma, but he doesn’t do enough with big crowds. How come no gloaty Blu-ray victory dance party? Chilling with Charlie Rose isn’t a direct path to divinity, but showing up with Tom Hanks at CES is a start. Still, Sony needs to regain gadget clout, not remind the world that it’s a piracy-fearing movie maker. One thing he has done is give the Japanese firm a leader who isn’t afraid to lay off when the company is bloated with employees not pulling their weight, unlike traditional Japanese CEOs. And he encourages Japanese employees to work abroad to increase their understanding of the customers of the world. But he’s also been working hard to unify the company’s software and hardware development not only in each division, but across product groups. Only Apple and Microsoft have done this successfully, but Sony is actually making progress here, behind the scenes. Chance of Godhood? 45% because it might just be too late for the guy—or for Sony
GOOGLE Larry Page/Sergey Brin Never mind that Google keeps more products in beta than it launches or that these two are tech titans already on the web. Their first foray into hardware was received lukewarmly. But Google is here to stay, and no matter what CEO Eric Schmidt does, these two dudes’ faces will be the ones people think of. The last 60 years of tech are full of dynamic duos—Woz and Jobs, Hewlett and Packard, etc.—but unless you’ve got the timing of Martin and Lewis, it’s hard to pull off a tandem keynote. It definitely doesn’t help when you show up late wearing rollerblades. We just hope that the company can give their Android division the support it needs to compete with the companies full time in the gadget game, because Android is not only disruptive, but it’s the ammo that the phone makers need to compete with the all-in-one giants from Redmond and Cupertino. Chance of Godhood? 60%, could go up if they release more products, or undergo the operation Damon and Kinnear had in Stuck On You
ASUS Jonney Shih Netbook-revolutionary Asus is probably the company (companEee?) doing the most with Apple’s old mantra, “think different.” Their stuff coming out of Taiwan is radical and fun, and Jonney Shih, little known in these parts, is the sole capitano up top. He’s not afraid to rock the microphone, but he keeps doing it at other people’s events. Asus also makes a lot of notebooks for competitors, and has hardware expertise to spare. But in terms of software, they’re still limited by a strong dependence on Windows for their notebooks. As for their weak brand presence in the mainstream: Dude, you got some cash, time to throw bigger parties of your own, and not just ones timed with CES. And take another page from Apple: Learn how to keep products secret until they’re finished and shipping. Chance of Godhood? 40%, more if he finds a good barber and a dealer of fine turtlenecks and presentation sweaters
HTC Cher Wang The phone maker who first teamed with Google and launched the T-Mobile G1 is chaired by, yep, a lady! Named Cher! Cher actually got her start selling computer parts for a computer company, and helped found HTC to realize the vision of the true handheld computer. Even if the HTC brand is only a few years old to consumers, HTC has been making phones for other companies for a while: One in every six phones sold in the US this year were from her factories. They’ll grow stronger now that Android is here and Windows Mobile is (hopefully) in a period of major improvement, but their branding and design is still a bit on the chunky side. From the looks of her official corporate portrait, she could probably use a queer eye or two—I know I sound like a dick here, but sadly society does judge women more harshly than men on personal appearance. My guess is that as someone who emphasizes being a “devout Christian” in her bio, she’d probably frown on the whole “tech god” thing anyway. Chance of Godhood? 30% since Cher’s probably too busy to take our advice anyway—she also runs the chipmaker VIA
PALM Ed Colligan Colligan’s generally stormy course at Palm’s helm finally reached some smooth waters: He just unveiled Pre, a fresh, attractive take on the smartphone, bolstered by healthy chunks of DNA from Apple and other new smartphone platforms via the talent they aggressively poached. He’s proven he has what it takes to make big aggressive changes with this handset, and get the right talent in place, just like Steve Jobs would. And Colligan isn’t afraid to make bold brash statements, a requirement of godhood. But can he go all the way? Currently, his problem is with presenting—he’s not all that memorable, which might actually be good if you’re the guy who introduced the world to the Palm Foleo. Chance of Godhood? 15% cuz did I mention he believed, not long ago, that Foleo would “redefine how people work”?
Jon Rubinstein The “executive chairman” to Colligan’s “president and CEO,” it’s hard to tell if Rubinstein is sitting on the throne or next to it. He has our vote. The man in charge of bringing about Palm’s would-be salvation, the Pre, previously at Apple led development of the frickin’ iPod (maybe you’ve heard of it), and has actually out Apple’d Apple with the UI in this new handset. And Rubinstein’s team is one of the only in the world that is capable of revolutionizing cellphone operating systems. He keeps it cool on stage, reminding us a little of Nintendo’s amiable US boss, Reggie Fils-Aime. And his more than passing resemblance to Jeff Goldblum is a plus, too. One limitation in Palm that both Rubinstein and Colligan have to face: Palm will never build an end to end personal tech environment the way Apple and Microsoft can, even if they are on par in terms of making interfaces from the future. Chance of Godhood? 55%, but sky’s the limit if he can shoo Colligan away
AMAZON Jeff Bezos Bezos already was a god—a dotcom god. Many of those other former household names are now mercifully forgotten, but Bezos still shows up on magazine covers. He recently heralded in the eradication of DRM from online music retailers to the applause of paying music customers. But what really surprised us, and earned him a place on this list was that he had such a grand vision of what the ebook should be—the replacement of the book—and the funding and drive to make it happen. But he should do more live appearances to drum up more mainstream excitement over software initiatives like the DRM-free MP3 store and video on demand. And he needs to keep Kindles in stock long enough for people to buy them. Most importantly, he’s finally learning that tech gods are only as good as their next products. Just because Bezos understands books on a deep level doesn’t mean he’ll ever be able to do any other type of gadget besides E-Ink tablets. That’s ultimately limiting when it comes to building next-generation personal tech ecosystems. In the meantime, where’s my Kindle 2? Chance of Godhood? 30% if he does more bragging in person, though that braying laugh of his could be a liability
DEKA/SEGWAY Dean Kamen Back in 2001, the rumor mill leading up to the launch of the Segway rivaled any Apple buzz. Before the product was even seen, people wrote about it being civilization-changing, and as important as the internet. Kamen’s been on a roll (get it?) since then, not just developing the police Segway, the golf Segway and some kind of Segway footstool, but also perfecting a water purifying technology and a truly robotic prosthetic arm, all while greening up his own private island. He’s did it all with few mainstream public appearances: Showing up at All Things D with a video of the robot arm—not the real thing—was a misstep in our minds, but appearing on Colbert with a working water purifier was definitely a sign of publicity (and worship) to come. If he can invent something for the gadget lovers of the world that is as bright and thoughtful and life changing as his humanitarian tech, he’d become the Jobs that Jobs wishes he was. Chance of Godhood? A tragic 45%, seriously, this guy is Q, MacGyver and Hank Scorpio rolled into one—why isn’t he a god already?
FACEBOOK Mark Zuckerberg The sad fact is that our whole world is shifting over from hardware to software. Sure, Kamens are still needed to make sure there’s progress in mechanical devices, but our toys are less and less mechanical. Facebook is probably the best example of an internet platform that has stolen thunder from the gadget world. Trouble with Facebook is that it’s big and amorphous, and the charming Zuckerberg needs a second act to propel him into the heavens. Still, he’s like 13, with his whole life and a lot of money ahead. He’ll think of something. But to be a Gadget God, he’ll have to always depend on the hardware of others. At least until we have browsers in our brains with which we can access our social networks with. Chance of Godhood? 95% even if it doesn’t happen in my lifetime
These are all strong candidates, but the assumption is that there will, in fact, be new gadget gods. Maybe, like the ancient gods themselves, our new era doesn’t have as much use for them. Maybe it’s not just the transition to software, but the shift from bright ideas to massive team efforts. Or maybe Jobs and Gates are the kinds of guys that only come along once a century, and we’re gonna have to wait a little longer for something that divine.
Samsung is gearing up to release its own Android handset this year, according to a recent report. The company confirmed plans to offer the phone through T-Mobile and Sprint.
“We are accelerating the development process for Google phone in order to meet the specific need of local carriers,” wrote the company.
The handset will feature a touchscreen and various Google Apps, including Google Search, Gmail Google Maps, and G-Talk messenger. The company didn’t comment on further information such as pricing.
“Pleasantly surprised.” These are two words I enjoy, but seldom get to include in a post. Let’s roll-em-out today because I am pleasantly surprised by how much I like my $20 ULTRACLAMP. “Really Geoff,” my inner voice shouts. “Do you really think the “ULTRACLAMP” deserves an entry?”
Oh yeah! It is now my favorite product from Redmond, Washington.
This article was written on June 11, 2008 by CyberNet.
One thing that can become really frustrating is when you go a site only to find that they have a long Flash introduction. Your options are to sit and wait for the 10 or 15 second introduction to finish, or you could search the page for the “skip intro” button which is never in the same spot on every site. On the bright side, at least there is the option to skip the intro, but it would be nice if there was one universal spot to put it on every site.
Instead of searching all over the page, what if you were able to just click the “skip intro” button right from your search engine? Google has now added a new feature and if a site has a “skip intro” button, they will show it in the search results. When you click on it you’ll be taken to the homepage without having to sit through the introduction. Nice, isn’t it?
I should say it’s nice for the people visiting the site who really don’t want to have to wait to see an introduction. For developers though, it’s not so nice. There’s a reason they have an introduction and they probably spent a good amount of time making it.
As Google Blogoscoped mentions, this is a feature that could have been around for some time that is now just getting noticed, or it could be new. We did come across some sites that had an introduction, but Google didn’t provide the “skip intro” option. It appears as though a site must have the words “enter site” on the introduction page that is in HTML in order for Google to pick it up.
This article was written on May 27, 2006 by CyberNet.
People use Google Maps in a ton of different ways. The Google Maps API makes it easy for web developers to create their own applications that are fun to play with and some that are really useful. I decided to put together a list of Google Maps uses that I have found over time:
Map My Run – Map your jogging path and calculate how many calories you have burned. You can place starting point, stopping points, and your finish point.
ASCII Maps – Use Google Maps in ASCII mode! It might make your eyes bug out.
Map Of Digg Users – A map of Digg users that has almost 8000 submissions.
There you have it, a list of 20 popular uses of Google Maps. This is by far a complete list of Google Maps uses, so let us know how you use Google Maps.
So much for the Kogan Agora handset. Kogan, the Melbourne-based electronics manufacturer, announced today that it has put its plans for an Android handset on hold indefinitely due to “potential future interoperability issues.”
Ruslan Kogan, who heads up the company, planned to release the phone on Dec. 15. The date was subsequently pushed back to Jan. 29 and the price was bumped up from $199 to $299.
“The Agora reached a very late stage of development, manufacturing had commenced and we were within days of shipping the product to customers. But it now seems certain the current Agora specifications will limit its compatibility or interoperability in the near future,” he told The Age.
The site speculates that Kogan’s decision was the result of a recent meeting, which the 25-year-old electronics manufacturer had with Google at their American headquarters, earlier this week.
While the T-Mobile G1–the first commercially-available Android handset–is only available in the US, Australian consumers can still purchase the unlocked Android Dev Phone 1 for a cool $399.
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Here they are: Alleged spy photos of the second generation Android cellphone, the thinner, shinier, and totally lickable T-Mobile G2 made by HTC. It has no keyboard and its back looks oh-so-soap-bar-smooth:
This past year, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs began to focus on priorities other than tech. Who will fill their winged sandals and become the new Gadget Gods?
Tim Cook
Phil Schiller
Steve Ballmer
Robbie Bach
Sir Howard Stringer
Larry Page/Sergey Brin
Jonney Shih
Cher Wang
Ed Colligan
Jon Rubinstein
Jeff Bezos
Dean Kamen
Mark Zuckerberg
