Friday, February 19
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Kodak has been widely criticized by environmentalists and researchers as one of the worst corporate polluters in the United States.
Now it wants to take your iPhone away. I hate Kodak. Patent hoarding anti-competitive evil company.
PR Spin that one, Kodak.
I just downloaded this RedLaser iPhone App (Search for Occipital in the App Store). It’s $1.99 but already I can see its value.
You hold anything with a UPC code up to the camera on your iPhone, and it will search the database of over 400,000 products (and growing) to find your match. Then it gives you the results of the item in Google Product Search and TheFind. It will also show you prices and the nearest store where you can buy the product.
After installing it, I literally grabbed the closest retail product with a barcode on it, a can of Lemon Pledge. In a relatively dark room it correctly scanned the item in seconds, and told me that I could buy it from the Walgreens 2 miles away for $5.79.
That’s pretty slick. And that’s just scratching the surface of this app. After receiving the comment below from Vikas Reddy at Occipital, I grabbed the nearest book, scanned the UPC and got this:
Robbie Bach, the President of the Microsoft’s Windows Mobile group criticized Google’s Nexus One strategy saying:
“Doing both [software and hardware] in the way they are trying to do both is actually very, very difficult. Google’s announcement sends a signal where they’re going to place their commitment.”
Robbie Bach needs to take a healthy dose of STFU. Windows Mobile is a joke, both within and outside of Microsoft. Make a product that works and maybe someone will care about your opinion on what Google should or shouldn’t be doing. Apple makes their own hardware and software and they’re kicking Windows Mobile’s ass.
This is the bomb: iPhone 3GS Augmented Reality Demo.
YouTube – Bionic Eye app for the iPhone 3GS with Augmented Reality.
So I finally got around activating my beta Google Voice account. I really didn’t have much of an idea of what it was before I signed up.
After you log in, the first thing it asks is for you to pick a phone number. The phone number wizard allows you to pick a number based on area code or zipcode (geographically this will offer you a number that looks familiar to you). In my case they had both 321 numbers and 407 numbers (both Central Florida area codes).
But, the cooler part is that you can type in a word and it will automatically find numbers that match your word. I typed in “DIGGZ” and found myself a nice little Los Angeles 323 number … 323-96-DIGGZ.
So you get your number and then you have to map it to an existing phone number. I mapped it to my existing cell phone, but I imagine you can use just about any number, Skype, Vonage or even a traditional land line. But you probably want to map it to a phone that has SMS capabilities, because that’s one of the cooler features of Google Voice.
Once you map the number, Google Voice called my cell phone. When I answered it prompted me for a 2 digit security number (presumably so you can’t just map it to some stranger’s phone without their permission). Then it prompts you to record your name and a standard voicemail greeting.
Now what?
The Google Voice Interface looks a lot like GMail’s interface. Inbound calls to my Google Voice Number are routed to my cell phone (you have the option of having it show the CallerID of the caller or your Google Voice Number when you receive a call). I can also turn off the call routing and just have calls go directly to the Google Voice Voicemail box…the messages are accessible via the web interface or a phone interface (mobile web browsers too).
You can make outbound calls via the web interface as well, simply by putting the in number you wish to call and your phone will ring as Google Voice attempts to connect the call.
It appears that calls inside the US are free. You can make international calls cheaply but you have to put money in your Google Voice account via Google Checkout. (Minimum is $10)
You can also send and receive SMS text messages via the web interface (this also appears to be free…but you still get charged your normal SMS text messaging charges through your cell phone carrier), and these are forwarded to my cell phone as well.
I created the above button in my account…they seem to be encouraging this type of behavior. I’m not sure how I would actually use this, but it’s interesting.
So what does it all mean? Why do I need this? How is it making my life easier?
I don’t have an answer to that. Obviously Google is trying to own yet another version of your identity…in this case your phone number. Once they have that, then presumably they can start selling ads. But will I use it? I don’t know. Yet. Try giving me a call…we’ll see how this thing works together.
Diggz, Michelle, and Ryan talk about Ryan’s recent appearance on SomaCow, token females, geothermal heating and religion, plus Ryan discloses the contest rules to win his Mophie.
“We can’t imagine ourselves without the alphabet and writing, and so in the same way we’re going to not be able to imagine ourselves without this other machine…”
YouTube – Kevin Kelly: Predicting the next 5,000 days of the web.
This has been rumored for a while, but it looks like Facebook has started testing their new Paypal-like e-commerce system with some 3rd-party apps.
The payments platform could position Facebook to become a significant e-commerce player, not just challenging Ebay (and PayPal), but also Amazon and iTunes.
While technically still operating in the red, CEO Mark Zukerberg said they expect to be profitable this year. Presumably part of this proected revenue increase will be coming from the new payments system.
One can only assume this eventually work with Facebook Connect, as well as the iPhone app.
Of course, MySpace has their own in the works as well.
FT.com / Companies / Media – Facebook brings in payment system.
When the next iPhone update happens, getting the ability to record video may be just the tip of the iceberg. Imagine the ability to not just capture video, but to edit it, add titles, music and special effects right on the iPhone. And then, with a click, upload it for the world to see on YouTube.
According to Peter Burrows, “Apple will make the iPhone a one-stop studio for recording, editing, viewing and sharing your own videos…” Making Movies: The Next Big Thing in iPhones?
The real clicher, of course, would be the ability to use multiple iPhones to capture different camera angles (or audio tracks) and quickly be able to edit them together. That, my friends, would be the proverbial shizzit.
