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June 30, 2010 08:55  by Kris Abel

Flip mino HD

Rather than design a wholly new version of their popular Flip pocket camcorder, creators Pure Digital have opted to take last year’s model and spruce it up, to give it a bigger screen, a sleeker body, and double the recording time. It is an improvement in every way except for video quality. Sitting within the new brushed aluminum exterior is the exact same camera as before and so it’s less about making existing Flip fans want to upgrade as it is about attracting new users to the fold. [More]
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June 30, 2010 07:13  by Kris Abel
You're standing at the bottom of George Street in Halifax, Nova Scotia, looking up towards the Town Clock. Well, actually you're sitting at your computer, faking this using Google's Street View mode, but your view is a modern one, taken from the last time the Street View trucks passed through the town. What if you could now see that same view as it would have been in 1870? History Pin is a new site that can take archival photographs and align them to fit the landmarks and architecture of Street View imagery, allowing you to transition between today and the past from the same spot, to see cars and street lamps one second and an unfinished road and hay carts the next. Users can submit their own photos and stories to the map, which has content from around the world and when it reaches the point where there are many pictures in one spot, a timeline interface will guide you through the past.  [More]
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June 30, 2010 06:59  by Kris Abel

Icosien

The challenge of Icosien is to draw each geometric shape in one pass, never traveling over the same point twice. The twist is that you're doing so using your mouse and string, wrapping it around one side or the other of a pin at each junction point on the diagrams, so you actually feel like you are using a real supply of string. You can click on any pin as a starting point and then simply extend your mouse to lengthen the string and wrap it around the next pin to continue. Very perplexing at the higher levels.  [More]
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June 29, 2010 14:14  by Kris Abel

As successful as Apple's iPad has become, users have quickly discovered that without USB or ethernet ports, it can be quite limited for use in the business world. Networking giant (and now manufacturer of the Flip camcorder) Cisco has revealed plans to meet those limitations with their own tablet-styled device designed specifically with the business world in mind. It's called the Cius (pronounced "see-us") and it's a small, flat-screened portable filled with a suite of applications such as Quad, WebEx, Presence, and Telepresence, all aimed at IT professionals and executives who spend a lot of time in virtual meetings. 

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June 29, 2010 12:14  by Kris Abel

PlayStation Plus

Today Sony rolled out a number of upgrades designed to strengthen their online offerings for the PlayStation 3. A free firmware update today adds new systems to connect with social networks and their PlayStation Plus service is now available, offering exclusives, extras and free content to those willing to pay an annual fee. For more than four years PS3 owners have enjoyed free access online, today Sony will find out how many are willing to pay for the complete experience. [More]
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June 29, 2010 09:02  by Kris Abel

Kindle Video Audio Editions

There are many developments in the world of eBook Readers this week, from new changes in digital textbooks happening right here in Toronto at Blyth Academy, which last November became famous for being the first high school to switch to eReader devices over paper textbooks, to Amazon's release of Kindle Editions books that include video and audio content. The digital book market is clearly heating up thanks to the popularity of the Kindle, Kobo, and Sony Reader and clearly all of the major players are eager to introduce something new this fall. [More]
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June 29, 2010 08:41  by Kris Abel

Researchers working in the field of reconfigurable robotics at MIT and Cambridge University have released some captivating video and details this week on a new material they have developed that can fold itself in a variety of shapes. The flat sheets draw upon the ancient art of origami to pull their triangular sections into making folds that form the material into boats, airplanes, and tents. Named "programmable matter by folding" the new material contains tiny actuators along the fold lines which receive an electric current from circuits hidden within the sheets. A computer can be used to model a desired shape and the materials will go into action, using its triangular sections not only to form the desired shape, but also different levels of stiffness in the material itself. Once its transformation is complete, tiny magnets hold the material corners together. Described in detail in this week's issue of PNAS, the material's creators envision the material being used to create adjustable camera tripods or even cups that can change their shape to suit the liquid being poured into them. 

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June 29, 2010 08:30  by Kris Abel

Loved

Are you a man or a woman? asks Loved, an intriguing platform game that behaves mysteriously, asking you odd questions and giving you surprising directions as you travel through it's tricky levels. Depending on the answers you give, the outcome will change. Designed to be a short story, creator Alexander Ocias says he wanted to create something confrontational, that would guide players to think about what they are doing both in and out of the game. Give it a try.  [More]
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June 28, 2010 07:48  by Kris Abel

Somehow I missed this hilarious upload-your-photo viral from Fox Home Video last year. My Movie Moment uses Oddcast's face recognition and animation technology to place your face into a number of signature scenes from Fox classics including The Terminator, The Omen, Office Space, Dodgeball, Robocop and more. It was intended for Halloween, but the surreal results of the process as so staggeringly odd and funny that it really doesn't matter what season it is outside. I've included my moment from City Slickers below for you to judge and will warn you that once you upload your face to the head of the chestbuster in Alien, which is far more disturbing than you might think, you can never "unsee" it (shudder).

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June 28, 2010 07:00  by Kris Abel

Nokia N97 mini

Generally, as we move from one cell phone generation to the next, designers carry forward the elements that work while dropping the ones that fail. The Nokia N97 mini is the exact opposite, compiling all of the poor decisions from the past five years into one convoluted hand set. It’s too-small, sluggish touchscreen dimly offers a clumsy interface cluttered with unused options, atop a keyboard too wide to use comfortably on a handset too small, hampered by software and apps that deliver a hobbled experience. What on Earth were they thinking? [More]
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