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Posts Tagged ‘opinion’

Hole in the Wall computerScoble has taken time out from his busy angst-baiting (only joking, Robert!) to blog about LIFT and some of the cool research and tech being shown there.  So far getting his “best worth the entrance fee” award has been Sugata Mitra’s five-year Hole In The Wall Experiment, examining the success of Minimally Invasive Education in India.

Mitra surreptitiously built a computer into a wall in a remote Indian village and retired to watch the confusion.  Only what he observed was not bemused locals, but a self-taught group of young people learning within eight hours how to use the machine and helping each other to surf the net.  From that start, the project grew to several machines in different sites, young people learning to use the computer for browsing, chatting, e-mail, painting, games, educational material, music downloads and playing video.

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VistaNow that Vista has finally moved off of Wired News’ Vaporware Awards list, albeit only in business versions, flighty analysts are already looking to the future of Microsoft’s OS strategy.  There have been plenty of opinion pieces claiming that Vista will be the last of the traditional Windows series, with dark hints about internet-based web-appliance systems and the like, but it all seems rather hashed together.  Still, I’m all for intrigue and crystal-ball gazing, so it was interesting to see James Kyton’s analysis of what little information about the next-gen developments will be.

Codenamed Fiji and Vienna, the former could be considered ‘Vista RC2′; expected to be released in 2008, it will build on the much-vaunted sidebar and tighter system integration of the OS with WinFS add-ons to enable virtual folders and/or saved searches, default HD-DVD compatibility, NGSCB security and possibly even a Garageband-rivalling music suite provisionally titled Monaco.

Details on Vienna after the cut.

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Coffee Shop WiFi Etiquette

By Chris Davies on Saturday, Dec 16th 2006 1 Comment

Free WiFi seems to be far more prevalent over on the US side of the Atlantic than it is where I am in the UK, but that’s not to say you never find it.  So it’s a good idea for everyone to read Paul Boutin’s Valleywag piece on wireless protocol, which deals with everything from power outlet hogging (nb. carry a power strip!) through to hourly rates (he’s saying $5). 

Coffee Shop WiFi 

Personally I’m thinking five bucks is a little on the low side and, considering Paul is talking coffee, snacks and tips in that, you’re either getting ridiculously low-priced food and drink (which is entirely possible, compared to our over-priced economy) or need to reach into your pocket more. 

What’s the protocol at Wi-Fi Cafes? [Valleywag]

Sprint EVDO cardsWith my monthly data bill getting higher and higher, I’ve been very curious about the “all you can eat, except it’s capped” data services that several cellphone operators have started offering.  Michael Mace over at Mobile Opportunity takes the time to look in-depth at the future of data on your handheld, pulls the rug out from underneath the belief that flat-rate pricing is key, and even goes as far as to offer five steps that, in his opinion, will make cellular broadband a success.

“What needs to be moved to mobile networks isn’t just the Web’s applications or price structure, it’s the Web’s open business model. We need to run a huge number of experiments in order to figure out what applications users will want in mobile data. No single company is capable of doing all that work on its own. The only way to make the experiments happen is to set up a vibrant, chaotic ecosystem in which thousands of developers will be free to rapidly try and fail at a huge number of things.” Michael Mace

Well worth a read if you’re curious about the direction operators are going in.

Will flat-rate pricing make mobile data take off? [Mobile Opportunity]

Dethroner recently ran an interesting post about the nature of consumer electronics reviews and what readers should take into account when finding out someone’s opinion of the latest in tech nirvana.  One of the standout points for me was the limited amount of time most reviewers have with a product – they don’t find out the niggly little glitches that emerge over time, and because they’ve had the product sent over direct from the manufacturer they tend not to know about frustrations in the retail process.

Canon HV10

Davis Freeberg wrote to SlashGear after seeing our unboxing video of the Canon HV10 digital camcorder.  We’ve been raving about this prosumer model, using it for several of our video reviews as well as documenting this year’s CES, and Davis agrees that it’s a great camcorder; what he isn’t so keen on is how Canon have handled their current rebate offer: a free copy of Pinnacle Studio Plus Titanium Edition which would normally retail for $50.  Check out his saga after the cut.

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Remember those alarm clocks that to silence you had to throw against a wall?  Remember how good it felt to take your early-morning-I-don’t-want-to-go-to-work-please-don’t-make-me-mommy aggression out on an annoying, screeching gizmo?  Well, this new art-project, HiTV, should appeal to you.  It’s an “affective interaction and feedback interface” for your TV, which when translated comes out as “throw a big sponge ball at the screen when you’re pissed off at what’s on”.  Make sure you check out the video after the cut…

HiTV emotionally reactive TV

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As October draws to a close and we edge towards the eight week countdown to Christmas, it’s time for another SlashGear Month in Review.  And let’s face it, if you haven’t got a few additions to your letter to Santa from the past 30 days or so, what the golden trouser inflation have you been doing?

Our man Vincent gripping the T-Mobile Dash

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Now normally I’d leave gaming news to our resident thumb-twitcher Ben Nied, but all the furore over Take Two Interactive Software Inc.’s latest headline-grabber Bully has really tickled me.  Most likely still laughing over the outrage caused by previous release Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (laughing all the way to the bank, that is, with the game netting them $1.5billion since its release in 2001), Take Two have managed to again rile conservatives by including a number of gay kisses in amongst Bully’s back-to-school clique-climbing.  Check out the pixel-boy-on-boy action after the cut.

Bully - boys kissing

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Having been called an e-Hermit before, and accused of spending more time online than I do interacting with the fleshworld people around me, I was very interested to read about Francesco Jodice’s new film Hikikomori.  The eponemous subjects are adolescents and young adults, predominantly Japanese and well-educated, who have chosen to withdraw from meatspace society and continue most if not all of their socialising via the internet.

Hikikomori

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One of the things that has got Tablet PC users most excited about Microsoft Vista is the idea that the pen computing-specific features will be neatly rolled up into the main operating system, hopefully bringing them to a greater audience’s attention and encouraging more into the Glorious Way Of The Stylus.  Geekzone have sat down with a Vista-branded Wacom usb tablet and tried out the latest OS build and reported back on some of their first impressions – handwriting recognition, flicks and gestures.

Windows Vista Tablet

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