Archive for May, 2007
Join Oh Google where art thou? (some things for you to do)
Well you may vaguely remember I have gone on mild tirade/suggestion lists.
One of the kind humans over at Lifehack.org, (and obvious Googleophyte (not that there’s anything wrong with it)) recently had a great piece in the same vein. Sadly they don’t have their name on the article so that I can thank them correctly. This is the article in question.
Their focus is on Gmail (duh), Google Reader, Google Docs and Spreadsheets, and Google Calender. It is a nice simple piece that outlines some simple and direct opportunities for Google to improve its services, and/or for other companies to pay attention and provide the services that people are asking for. If they don’t, well there are a million people out there looking to pick up the slack in any one of those niches. Our friends over at Planypus for example. Great product, simple, well executed, and just looking for larger adoption rates. Those guys have responded to feedback and constantly improved their solution.
Continue reading » Oh Google where art thou? (some things for you to do)
Gmail Users are Younger, Richer, Good in Bed
Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the latest stats show that Gmail users skew younger and richer than those on Yahoo Mail and Hotmail.
Gmail opened up to all comers in February, with Gmail’s market share of US visits climbing 17% from February 2007 to April 2007. However, Yahoo Mail and Hotmail are still much bigger by comparison, says Hitwise: Yahoo had 13x the market share, and Hotmail had 6x the marketshare of Gmail.
The good news, if you’re a Gmail user, is that you may be part of the elite: while Yahoo and Hotmail users are decidedly average, Gmail users tend to be young, have a high income, and be early adopters of technology. 54% of users are between 18 and 34, while 18% have an average annual household income between $100,000 and $149,999 (compared to 15% for Hotmail and 13% for Yahoo Mail).
Another stat, probably related to the young age of GMail users: they’re more likely to be Facebook users than those on the other services.
As for performance in the bedroom – well, we kinda lied. In fact, the stats show that solitary Gmail users are far more likely to Google themselves.
[Via mashable.com]
BeSocial: digg story | methodshop
UAV meets smart mobile munitions, for seriously messing up bad guys
Thanks to Noah over at the Danger Room (he used to be at Defense Tech till Wired threw down the big bucks for him (I hope you’re getting the big bucks Noah your work is great). We have this bit of amazing wizardry.
DARPA (they make the cool stuff civilians don’t see for 20 years) has developed the Continue reading » CCLR a non-line of sight lethal recon killer drone. Basically it is a xbox style interface with a flip up screen that controls a hand launched “self sacrificing” killer drone. So basically you hand launch this little bot into the air, it flies under its own power for up to 2 clicks (kilometers) and when the user (who is watching its every move on the screen mounted on the controller) has found their target. Well from there on you can pretty much guess what happens…. UAV meets smart mobile munitions, for seriously messing up bad guys
Poolside Golf
We do seem to feature quite a few pool gadgets and golf gizmos and this next product combines the two, Pro-Chip Island Golf.
To play the game simply float the island in your pool and then try to chip the balls onto the green. As each ball has a velcro cross they should stick to the float rather than bouncing off into the water. It comes complete with 12 balls which should minimize the time you need to go paddling on ball retrieval duties (or the bumber of times you push the kids in the pool and tell them to “Go fetch”).
The full kit (minus golf club) costs $49.95 from Solutions.
Dream Racer cars for the disabled
Raising the self-confidence level of a child especially after a horrific accident can be quite a hard task to do, even more so if the child has been left disabled or paralyzed to a certain extent. One thing’s for sure though – remote control cars are definitely fun whether you still have your limbs intact or not, which is why Mark and Mike have worked together since last year to improve the lives of disabled children by coming up with remote controlled radio cars that do away with the standard controller. Known as the Dream Racer car, the controllers can be custom built to cater for children and young adults who experience physical disabilities.
Continue reading » Dream Racer cars for the disabled
Eikon does away with memorizing passwords
Remembering a bunch of passwords can be quite a pain, considering the amount of e-mail accounts, Flickr accounts, social networking sites, and forums that one participates in every day. You can’t just leave them on a text file on your Windows Desktop, making it privy to all and sundry and neither can you write it down in a small piece of paper lest it gets lost. What are you supposed to do then, considering all those above mentioned user accounts are mission critical? The answer lies in the Eikon Digital Privacy Manager.
Continue reading » Eikon does away with memorizing passwords
For eating and working
The Spork thing has never really done it for me, as it does not actually do anything more than either of the two items can do on their own. What we really need is something that serves a proper dual purpose, not just being content with cutlery that we can just use for eating with, what we really want while we are eating our lunch, is a tool that can help with our jobs too! This is where the cleverly named “Wrench ware” comes into its own.
Continue reading » For eating and working
