Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Technology and restaurants have combined at the Imano Restaurant in London, as every table is essentially a computer display. These tables are not like the Microsoft Surface, but they are just as good.As you can see, there are projectors above the tables to obtain the virtual display, and there is a circular touchpad to allow for navigation. From the moment a customer sits down, the user can then select their "placemat" like selecting a wallpaper for Windows.
From there, the customer/user can look at the menu, which includes pictures of the appetizers, main courses, even drinks. Ordering is as simple as pointing and clicking, and a wait-person will deliver your meal to you.
While the customer is waiting, he or she has the option of watching their meal prepared through a camera in the kitchen. The customer also has the option of playing a game with his or her dining partner.
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Expedia (EXPE) today unveiled an aggressive new promotion, which it calls "Free Nights and No Fee Flights," offering to pick up the tab for one night in a hotel for stays of three, four or five days at a group of more than 700 participating hotels, and also waiving booking fees for flights booked before the end of May. The hotel promotion currently is for bookings made by April 9 for travel through May 15; the company said additional deals will be posted for bookings beginning April 9 for travel through the end of May.
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Apple's new iPod shuffle is interesting in a number of ways. The most interesting is of course the new VoiceOver feature which communicates the name of songs and playlists through speech. But perhaps even more interesting is that there is a different voice you hear based on if you're syncing your iPod shuffle with a Mac or a PC. And, not surprisingly, the Mac voice is much better.
Apple's new iPod Shuffle now comes with 4GB of storage, enough to hold 1000 songs in 128-Kbps AAC Format, it is charged via USB and can be fully charged from flat in just 3 hours.
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Photobucket, the most popular photo sharing site in the U.S., just announced a number of new features that will give its users easier ways to share their photos and videos across multiple web services like MySpace, Facebook, or Blogger. Photobucket also introduced a new version of its mobile site, which features a streamlined interface, as well as easier ways to access comments, ratings, and subscriptions.
The new sharing feature is powered by widget distribution network gigya.
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A Canadian filmmaker named Rob Spence has figured out a way to remove that "I'm-on-camera" factor in his documentaries, as his prosthetic eye has a concealed camera.
Spence plans to film many people, and the eye will transmit the footage wirelessly to a storage device nearby. Of course, he is required by law to tell his interviewees that they are on camera. Oddly enough, the subject of his documentary is about whether people are "sleepwalking into an Orwellian society". I'm sure he realizes that his film could be one step into a surveillance society.
The special prosthetic eye was developed by OmniVision of Santa Clara. Spence got the idea for the camera eye by watching The Six Million Dollar Man and noticing that the tiny cameras in cellular phones could easily be put in a prosthetic eye.
So now Spence can film anything he wants without worrying about his subjects being distracted by the camera.
Labels: Apple, expedia, eyeborg, iPod, online tools, photobucket, photos, social network, touchscreen, video
Thursday, April 10, 2008
SnapMyLife.com, a mobile social media site where people can instantly share photos taken with a camera phone, was launched today by Mobicious, Inc. The site is made for viewing directly on cell phones and allows anybody with a camera phone to snap and share photos instantly with friends. It allows the option for instant alerts when there's new friend activity just like any other social network. It is kind of like Flickr and Twitter combined and there is a web interface, but the whole point of this application is for you to use it while on the go and not while sitting at your desktop in the office.
Except if you decide to do this you end up having to pay for text and/or data messages with your cell phone provider and I know it's not cheap. I recently completely shut off that feature on my phone because I am trying to save money and $10 adds up quickly when times are tough.
I do like the concept and I bet there are a million teenagers out there taking pictures with their phones and sending them to each other as I sit here and type this so more power to 'em.
Labels: cell phone, photos, snapmylife, social network
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Since I take like.... 8,372 pictures a day I have a HUGE photo collection on my external hard drive. Thousands upon thousands.I look at them through the windows film strip option, but I would like to see it bigger without having to open up Photoshop all the time.
**Cut to point**
PicLens
PicLens is "a browser plug-in that instantly transforms your browser into an immersive, full-screen slideshow experience." With one click, the image expands into full screen mode, where you can browse through the photos on the page in high resolution. Woohoo!
Support is currently provided for Flickr, Facebook, Friendster, Picasa Web Album and image search results from Google and Yahoo. Site owners can add support to any site with photos by including Media RSS support.
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