Tech News

We’ve seen a lot of changes in traditional film since the rise of digital film, including the discontinuation of Polaroid instant film. Now, here comes another one: Kodak has announced that they are ending production on Kodachrome film.

If you’ve never heard of Kodachrome, you should know that it is a film that uses a fine grain and warm colors. There are several pictures taken with Kodachrome that are considered landmarks today. Some of you might remember a green-eyed Afghan refugee girl with a hypnotic gaze on the cover of a 1985 National Geographic. That was a Kodachrome pic, as was a very famous photo taken of the Kennedy assassination.

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MLB at bat will stream live ball games to your iPhone or iPod. Batter up.

Major League Baseball has given the green light for an iPhone application which will allow live streaming of baseball games. Called MLB at bat, the application takes full advantage of the new streaming capability of the iPhone 3.0 software, will cost around $10 and will work on both the iPhone or iPod Touch.

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The effort to keep business expenses low while trying to transition to a more green lifestyle has prompted a British super market to look to their parking lot to power their lights and run their cash register. And the idea may catch on for other power needs as well.

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I remember watching some documentary special on roller coasters, and was very surprised to find that there is nothing holding the cars upside-down on the loop except centrifugal force. In other words, there is very little advanced technology involved with roller coasters, which is why I am skeptical of Universal Orlando theme park calling their Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit “the world’s highest tech roller coaster”.

The 3,800 foot long attraction is unique because it allows the user to select his or her personal soundtrack from many genres, then an individual song. I would hope that Universal would choose “Song 2” by Blur. Just listen to it, and you’ll see why it is perfect song for a roller coaster.

Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit also has a various LED flashing lights, and fourteen digital video cameras to capture the experience. I can’t help but wonder if the user has the option of getting a video clip of their experience after it is over.

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Yeah, that whole worldwide financial crisis has bankrupted a lot of businesses, and I, like many others, was completely shocked that Circuit City, one of the most well-known tech retail businesses in the world, was one of them.

It would appear that Systemax, the owner of CompUSA, has acquired Circuit City’s brand name on May 19th. It would also appear that the company wants to relaunch. At least the website aspect, for now.

If you go to the official website, you will see Gilbert Fiorentino, chief Executive of the Systemmax Technology Group tell all about it. Actually, the video is merely a placeholder “for a day or two” before they can get the official site in. So don’t be surprised if you go to circuitcity.com and find Circuit City completely up and running. If you want to see the video for yourself, I have it available here after the jump.

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Just to let you know, this product here, complete with picture, is a rumor. The source of this story comes from Team Xbox, who say that Microsoft is working on this Digital Entertainment Handheld. This is what it is: an Xbox 360 with a Zune. Your two favorite things in one package? Well, maybe not the Zune, but one out of two ain’t bad. (Not another “Zune slam”, stop it already.)

Anyway, the project is codenamed “xYz”. I am assuming the “X” comes from the Xbox 360 and the “Z” comes from the Zune. As for the “Y”, the answer to that is “because they can, and it would make money”.

Other facts are pretty sketchy at this point, but we do know that the xYz will come with a WVGA touchscreen. Assuming, of course, that it gets created.

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Since I am male, I have this thing about not wanting to ask for directions. It would appear that a German research group known as the Institute of Automatic Control Engineering has created a robot that asks directions for them.

In fact, the Autonomous City Explorer, or ACE, is completely dependent on directions to get to where it needed to go. This robot was recently let loose off campus from a University in Munich, and it was programmed to get to a landmark 1.5 kilometers away. Check out the video after this jump.

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Even though we are a quarter century past 1984, I am glad to say that Big Brother is not watching us. That is, unless we want to be watched with our webcam. Yes, we clearly live in a world that we never saw coming, and I am also glad to say that we don’t live in the dark dystopian world predicted by science fiction.

However, we may have taken a step toward a surveillance society last week, as a Wisconsin court ruled that the police can covertly attach a GPS tracking device to a citizen’s car without a warrant.

Apparently, it is okay for the police to plant their trackers because “GPS tracking does not involve a search or seizure”. Of course, one could argue that having the authorities track your whereabouts could be viewed as some sort beginning of a civil rights violation. I’m sure you can understand how the ACLU sees it.

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