Join Finally you can use the GPS that’s already in your phone!
At the CES show in Las Vegas, Trimble has announced a way to get more use out of the GPS ready phone that you likely already have.
The full expected rollout is late January 2007 for their Guideworks GPS solution.
What it does is use your existing phone’s GPS chip in cooperation with their software, together you can use them to:map out a trip, tag pictures taken with your phone with GPS coordinates, share trip data online,a compass and even geo-caching adventures.
This suite and the other solutions they’ve created make your phone do more than you ever thought it could (ok, so
some of your surf the web for who knows what on them, but this is really cool too!) Now you can even track your workouts and play them back over google earth! Not too shabby!
The best thing about this is that it likely uses a phone you probably already have. It’s very simple software to activate.
I was lucky enough to be able to see this in action a few weeks ago with a simple Java applet running on a regular handheld phone. While a buddy and I streaked across the farmlands of central California we could see a little dot (that was us) moving along a scrolling google map. It was really something! Continue reading » Finally you can use the GPS that’s already in your phone!
Ice cream flavored toothpastes
When I was a kid I used to love to clean my teeth with flavored toothpastes, and most of the time those would be bubble-gum flavored toothpastes. Now if you hit your local supermarket and search for flavored toothpastes I am sure you will find the bubble-gum taste, the strawberry one, and maybe the grape fruit one, but that is all!
With that problem in mind a dentist called Dr. Janelle Holden decided to create a line of toothpastes with new and innovate flavors: “By working with children everyday, Dr. Holden has learned which flavors children respond to best when using toothpastes and prophy pastes. This understanding of children’s favorite flavors has lead to the development of the Tanner’s Tasty Paste line of toothpastes for children. If children enjoy the flavors of their toothpastes, it is likely they’ll brush better and more often. And, if they brush better and more often, they’ll have fewer cavities!” Continue reading » Ice cream flavored toothpastes
Emtrace Widget station
Emtrace are showing their new WidgetStation in pre-release form this year. It’s an internet connected desk clock with two screens capable of displaying “Widgets” – small pieces of content that grab different bits of internet content. Stock ticker, weather, whatever – it’s all there quietly cycling around on the displays. It’s a nice piece of design and would look good on the average geek’s desk.
It should be available later this year, prices yet to be determined.
iSticky, keep your iPod in place when driving
Keeping your iPod in the car in one place isn’t easy. Anyone who has tried doing said task will agree with me, anyone who hasn’t will probably laugh, but I’m telling you, it’s hard. For one thing, every time you stop then start right up again, your iPod wants to slide along with you. Trying to find your iPod after it’s fallen down to the floor and is somewhere beneath your feet is pretty dangerous while driving, so why don’t you do the rest of the drivers on the road a favor and pick up an iSticky for your car, they’re cheap too.
Continue reading » iSticky, keep your iPod in place when driving
Get in the hot seat!
Hotseat inc are showing a nice range of custom built gaming chassis at CES this year. Starting at $999 for a basic chassis and going up to $4000 for a fully configured rig with flight controls, pedals, a high spec PC and large monitor this is a way of getting one step closer to reality for serious simmers.
The Chassis come with 5.1 surround speakers built in including a subwoofer under the seat for extra kick, are built to order and can be shipped internationally.
The top of your head, on Google Earth @ 1meter resolution!
The good folks at Google Earth (you have downloaded it, haven’t you) have some serious
fans by the name of Pict`Earth.
They’ve got a great little bit of gear and software. They provide the coolest service for viewing high resolution overhead images.
A small RC airplane flies at low level and records high resolution video. The video is then placed into Google Earth and is actively used to display nap of the earth images.
One of the key uses they’re touting it for is to record events from overhead. Just think of all the great things you could soon see on Google Earth: the overhead of the crowd from a football game, the throngs of a marathon crossing a well known bridge, bulls running down drunken runners in Pamplona, the possibilities are endless!
Continue reading » The top of your head, on Google Earth @ 1meter resolution!
Match the software, to the guy, to the spacecraft… you know you can.
As all good millionaires do after creating great technology, Jeff Bezos has finally joined the space race.
Ahh, that’s got to be the best result from the dotcom era. Rockets!!!
Bezos’ (how do I properly make that possessive) finally let people see his big blob of a VSTOL spaceship. It’s actually rather interesting, (though I do say that Mr. Allen down there seems to be winning the race so far.)
Check out the Blue Origin public website. Blue Origin is what Bezos’ rocket company is named. They’ve got some great videos of the craft’s first flight there, it’s really something.
They’ve been working for quite a while now but they’ve been on stealth mode, so no one knew what they were doing (aside from making some sort of spacecraft). It looks like it’s peroxide powered, (at least that’s what the motor sounded like, but I’m not really a flight guy so I’m just guessing there).
The performance looks interesting for his craft, (though I’m not sure what to term it aside from the frightening egg). Also there is a site for their recruiting (if you’ve got the skills, they’ll pay your bills.
Continue reading » Images from their site, seem to indicate that they’re going to build a much larger craft,, much larger (check the huge assembly area in the facility. Probably booster rocketed up and then a vertical landing back here on earth,, unless of course, they’re leapfrogging everybody and going to go straight to the moon. Ummm, maybe I’ve gotten ahead of myself there. Match the software, to the guy, to the spacecraft… you know you can.
The Plastic Microchip
Plastic Logic, a British company founded in 2000, is the first organization in the world to develop a working prototype of a plastic microchip. This project is very important for the future of the electronics and the computer industry. It is a not a coincidence, therefore, that all the major manufacturers in the world are investing heavily into similar technologies, including Lucent Technologies, Hitachi, Philips, Samsung and Au Optronics.
The plastic microchip will revolutionize our economy because it will present much lower production costs. The result would probably be a huge decline in the prices of personal computers, television sets, mobile phones and many other electronic devices. The second revolution will appear when such plastic microchips will start being inserted into non traditional materials such as food and clothing.
The achievement of Plastic Logic was noticed around the world, it received in fact an investment of $100 million to create a manufacturing plant in Dresden, Germany. The plant should be operational by 2008. Continue reading » The Plastic Microchip
