You should use whatever works for you. And I no longer have the patience or hubris to convince you what that should be. All I can offer is one data point: what I use, and how it works for me.



I've been leaning more and more toward such an attitude. I will offer my advice only when asked first and usually will try not to oversell people on making the same choices that I do usually because it will not work the same way. This linked post may be about evangelizing Apple products but I think it applies to all facets of life including personal opinions. 

Why do we believe in a particular thing? Because it works for us and makes us feel comfortable. It may not be the case for anyone else no matter how closely you're related to them. Offer your opinion when asked; when vehemently countered, don't persist because nothing is going to make them change their mind so why waste your breath?

Another batch of Microsoft patent applications have trickled into public view, and these ones may be even cooler than the last bunch. They describe “flinging gestures,” interaction with 3D virtual objects, and even throw it back a bit to describe a new email view format.

Let’s take a look, shall we?

Grasp Simulation Of A Virtual Object
Applied for back in April of 2010, this patent application outlines something strikingly similar to some of the technology we saw in Microsoft’s video portraying their version of the future. It describes user input on a 2D surface, which is then simulated as direct contact with a virtual 3D object. Said virtual 3D object is meant to move or be manipulated based on the user’s physical input.

In the video from this morning, users were able to input gestures without ever touching the device, as shown when the traveling businesswoman draws a heart into thin air, which is then translated onto the screen and relayed back to her kitchen wall. Perhaps this patent is a bridge between what we have now and Microsoft’s envisioned future, but either way I hope this one makes it to reality.

Changing Power Mode Based On Sensors In A Device
The next patent application on our list was filed for much more recently — in July of this year — and is basically meant to make it easier for us to turn on handheld computing devices. You know, since pushing a button is too strenuous. The patent outlines a way to power on a device, whether it be a mobile phone or a tablet (or any computing device you can hold, really), by holding said device in portrait orientation.

The patent discusses certain specifications that must be met in order for the function to work, like the degree at which the device must be held, or the amount of time the device must be held that way before it powers on. We’re glad to see it, too, as it would be totally annoying for a tablet to turn on each time it was in portrait orientation. The patent also covers a device that can perform this magical portrait boot action, along with the method by which one would do so. Way to cover your bases, Microsoft.

Email Views
This April 2010 patent application is a bit old-school, or at least it feels that way compared to a day full of both lofty and modest future predictions. But it may make my least favorite mode of communication — and MG’s least favorite thing ever — just a bit more bearable.

The patent describes a way of formatting your email view into different categories, rather than a list of names and subjects. The system would interpret the content of emails, and filter them into certain categories, like from friends, from family, videos and images, documents, invitations, and missed IMs. From there, the user has multiple interface options through which they can view their inbox in varying layouts.

The technology described is in no way revolutionary — Google’s been combing your email content to target ads for years, and their Priority Inbox is pretty similar, too — but it may add a little “delight” to the email experience, which is something Microsoft seems to aim for.

Throwing Gestures For Mobile Devices

Don’t let the title of this patent application fool you — there will be no phone throwing over at Microsoft, or anywhere else hopefully. Applied for in July, the “Throwing Gestures” patent describes a way of jerking your phone around to perform certain actions, including switching from one image to the next and closing applications. Like the “Changing Power Modes Based On Sensors In A Device” patent, Microsoft has also included a device which would use this technology.

Unfortunately, Microsoft didn’t include any images of the actual flinging motion in its patent application, so that’ll have to be one for our imaginations to figure out. I imagine people walking down the street waving their phones around like they’re throwing frisbies, but I guess that’s no stranger than the masses of people now having conversations with their brand new iPhones.

Note that these are only applications and have not been granted as yet.

[via Microsoft-News]






Crunchbase





MICROSOFT






Company:
Microsoft


Website:
microsoft.com


Launch Date:
April 4, 1974


IPO:

NASDAQ:MSFT



Microsoft, founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, is a veteran software company, best known for its Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office suite of productivity software.

Starting in 1980 Microsoft formed a partnership with IBM allowing Microsoft to sell its software package with the computers IBM manufactured.

Microsoft is widely used by professionals worldwide and largely dominates the American corporate market.

Additionally, the company has ventured into hardware with consumer products such as the Zune and...






Learn more

The sci-fi classic Star Wars: A New Hope features a famous scene in which Luke Skywalker practices Jedi Lightsaber skills on a small, flying sphere that can hover and move quickly in any direction. Now, Japan’s Ministry of Defense has developed what may be a precursor to the Jedi training ball, though they call it a “Spherical Flying Machine.”

Driven mostly by remote control, the 42-inch in diameter, 350 gram flying ball uses a combination of propellers and wings to hover, fly in all directions at up to 60 kph and even move along the ground and walls. Virtually nothing seems to stop the ball from “flying.”

According to Japanese ministry officials who demonstrated the flying ball this week at a DigiInfo Expo Conference in Japan, the sphere uses the propeller to lift off and land and the wings for lift as it flies forward. The secret sauce may by the sphere’s three gyroscopic sensors, which automatically right the ball when it’s on the ground or in the air. In the video, the ball lands and starts rolling around (thanks to the propeller). When it’s time to lift off, the gyroscopes help the ball position itself so the propeller is up top. There’s also a camera inside the sphere.

The Ministry of Defense built the robot to help them solve a problem. Apparently they’ve built aircrafts that can stand up vertically after flying horizontally, but take-offs and landings were difficult. Researchers then came up with the idea of a sphere as a potential solution. They then built this prototype with off-the-shelf parts for roughly $1,400. It’s unclear if the ministry plans on commercializing the flying sphere, but they do see some potential in the design. During the video, the demonstrator notes the flying sphere will be able to reach places that were previously hard to access by air.

For now, though, future Luke Skywalkers may have to wait awhile before they can start learning some Jedi tricks from a Japanese flying ball.

More About: ball, Flying, Gadgets, Robot

Using carbon nanotubes, Stanford researchers have been able to create touch-sensitive, gooey skin for AI sensing, prosthetics, and touch-sensitive sex androids. The skin could give robots touch-sensitivity and allow patients to regain feeling in their artificial limbs.

The tubes, when embedded into the plastic skin, act as tiny, compressible springs. These tubes can bend and squeeze as necessary, allowing you to measure the forces applied to almost any material, from “taffy”-like plastic to something like a rubber sponge.

“This sensor can register pressure ranging from a firm pinch between your thumb and forefinger to twice the pressure exerted by an elephant standing on one foot,” said Darren Lipomi, a postdoctoral researcher in Bao’s lab, who is part of the research team.

As you push and pull the skin, the sensors register an electrical charge and then the changes in charge can be used to sense where and how the skin is being touched. The system can now sense pressures “well below the pressure exerted by a 20 milligram bluebottle fly carcass.” You can learn more about the project here but I’d personally like to know if this skin is lickable.

Well it would seem that NTT DoCoMo, one of the largest wireless carriers in Japan, has let slip the Samsung Galaxy Nexus announcement just a couple hours early.

According to a tweet, “the latest Android OS smartphone with Google and Samsung Electronics [will be] announced on October 19 in Hong Kong tomorrow. DoCoMo is almost equivalent to the fastest in the world, scheduled for release in November. More later.” (Anyone who’s fluent in Japanese, please feel free to add clarity that Google Translate can’t.)

Although we’re still waiting to confirm specs that have already been leaked, an Italian blog called Android HDBlog seems to have an official image (full-size version after the break).

We’re not sure that this is 100 percent the real deal since we’d expect text in the image to be in Chinese. (The official announcement will be in Hong Kong.) Still, the blog claims that this comes straight out of Japan where what they call “the Japanese operator” has confirmed availability for November 20.

According to Android HDBlog, these are the specs we’ll be seeing on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus:

Dimensions: 5.4in x 2.7in x .35in (which is insanely thin, however the blog also mentions that its .45 inches at its thickest part)
Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
1.2GHz dual-core TI OMAP 4460 processor
4.65-inch 720×1280 AMOLED HD display (which may just be the Italian translation for Super AMOLED Plus)
5-megapixel CMOS rear camera with LED flash, capable of video capture in 1080p
1.3-megapixel CMOS front-facing camera
NFC!!
1GB of RAM, 16/32 GB of on-board storage

We’re still unsure whether or not there’s support for a microSD card, but I would be kind of shocked if there wasn’t.

Developing…

[First image via Ameblo.jp]






Crunchbase





GOOGLE







Company:
Google


Website:
google.com


Launch Date:
July 9, 1998


IPO:

NASDAQ:GOOG



Google provides search and advertising services, which together aim to organize and monetize the world’s information. In addition to its dominant search engine, it offers a plethora of online tools and platforms including: Gmail, Maps and YouTube. Most of its Web-based products are free, funded by Google’s highly integrated online advertising platforms AdWords and AdSense. Google promotes the idea that advertising should be highly targeted and relevant to users thus providing them with a rich source of information....






Learn more





:



Website:










Learn more

Sony is suffering from yet another hack attempt on its networks. But this time, the company seems to be better prepared, and apparently all credit card information is safe. Philip Reitinger, Sony’s Chief Information Security Officer, has posted an article on the official PlayStation blog explaining the incident.

According to Reitinger, the Sony Entertainment Network, PlayStation Network and Sony Online Entertainment Network were affected. The company halted about 93,000 user accounts across these networks and warned users to secure log-in details via e-mail.

Details are scarce at this point, but a Sony spokesman is quoted as saying that his company observed attempts to hack into 35,000 accounts in the US and another 24,000 in Europe between October 7 and 10. Again, Sony is claiming that “if you have a credit card associated with your account, your credit card number is not at risk.”.

In July, Japan was the last country to resume PlayStation Network services after Sony reported a severe data breach in April.

Google is targeting its App Engine platform-as-a-service cloud to business customers with a new $500-per-month plan that includes “premier support” and a 99.95 percent uptime service-level agreement. But customers may only contact Google after attempting to fix errors themselves, and “downtime” only counts against the SLA if there is more than a ten percent error rate and five consecutive minutes of degraded service.

“When choosing a platform for your most critical business applications or standardizing on one across your organization, we recognize that uptime guarantees, easy management and support are just as important as product features,” Group Product Manager Jessie Jiang announced in the Google Enterprise Blog. “So today, we are launching Google App Engine Premier Accounts. For $500 per month, you’ll receive premier support, a 99.95% uptime service level agreement and the ability to create unlimited number of apps on your premier account domain.”






Read the comments on this post

The whirring hard drives that once occupied entire university labs held but a fraction of the data we carry in our pockets every day — and that’s only 50 years of progress.

Today, as we move further into the cloud, and witness the latest and greatest pocket media devices, we thought it fitting to take a look back at how far we’ve come on our quest to store as much information in as little space as possible.

Infographic research and design by Mike Vasilev.

More About: Gadgets, infographics, Mashable Infographics, Tech

I caught up with Peter Vesterbacka, Mighty Eagle at Rovio, the creators of the successful Angry Birds franchise, yesterday at the Planet Of The Apps conference in London.

It wasn’t a huge secret, but I certainly didn’t know this: Vesterbacka tells me you will soon be able to buy Angry Birds-themed cookbooks; actual physical books and ebooks for Kindle, Nook and iPad.

Full disclosure: I got one of these limited-edition Angry Birds cookbooks for free (hence the pictures above and below). Also, I’m not much of a cook (hence why I accepted the book in the first place).

In all seriousness, Vesterbacka tells me there have been 400 million downloads of the Angry Birds apps to date, and that its merchandising business is chugging along nicely as well, with about 10 million plush toys having gone over the counter already. I also bought two for our baby boy recently.

Rovio is on a mission to turn Angry Birds into a brand as iconic as Nintendo’s Mario and Mickey Mouse, Vesterbacka adds. Gotta love ambitious (European) startups.

Enjoy the interview:






Crunchbase





ROVIO MOBILE
ANGRY BIRDS






Company:
Rovio Mobile


Website:
rovio.com


Funding:
$42M



Rovio is one of Europe’s leading independent developers of wireless games with an ever-growing portfolio of award-winning titles spanning many genres from casual to core next-gen console IP. Their studio has developed games for some of the biggest names in the mobile space, including Electronic Arts, Nokia, Vivendi, Namco Bandai and Mr. Goodliving/Real Networks.

The seeds of Rovio were sown in 2003 when Helsinki University of Technology students Niklas Hed, Jarno Väkeväinen, and Kim Dikert participated in a mobile game...






Learn more





Product:
Angry Birds


Website:
rovio.com

Company
Rovio Mobile


Angry Birds is a puzzle video game developed by Rovio, a developer based in Finland. Since its release for Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch devices, over 6.5 million copies of the game have been purchased, and versions have appeared for other touchscreen-based smartphones.

In Angry Birds, players take control of a flock of birds that are attempting to retrieve eggs that have been stolen by a group of evil pigs. The pigs have taken refuge on or within structures made...






Learn more

Oh, Microsoft! You are so cunning. With IE market share plummeting and many users opting for “alternative” web browsers like Firefox and Chrome, your base of power is crumbling. We thought you would succumb to melancholy and accept your fate. But you had a plan all along. Clever girl.

Yes, Microsoft has found a way to stanch the hemorrhaging of its users to other browsers: label them as malware in the built-in Security Essentials suite!

Okay, I kid. It was just a minor mistake, and they corrected it immediately: “On September 30th, 2011, an incorrect detection for PWS:Win32/Zbot was identified. On September 30th, 2011, Microsoft released an update that addresses the issue.” The incorrect detection led to Chrome being removed and reinstall prohibited.

It actually brings up an interesting point, though. Seamless updates like Chrome’s are growing more popular, especially since many apps are essentially web services, and changes (mostly innocent) happen behind the curtain all the time. When it’s a local app, though, the process for authentication becomes more complicated.

Google shouldn’t have to wait for Microsoft to approve all its updates. But Microsoft needs to be vigilant and watch for unauthorized changes that may negatively affect the user. And while malicious programs are important to watch for, poorly secured ones can be just as dangerous.

Security was never simple, but it’s getting more complicated by the day and users have more choices and more exposure. Luckily, snafus like this one are pretty harmless and Microsoft, though I give them a hard time, is actually very responsive on this front.

Update: Google has some more information on their Chrome blog.

The Kindle Fire appears to have catalyzed yet another tablet sale: the HTC Flyer will drop to $299 at Best Buy starting October 1, with no end to the sale in sight. This is the second big-name tablet that appears to be re-centering itself around the Kindle Fire's $199 price point.

Over the last couple of weeks, the BlackBerry PlayBook’s price slid down to a starting price of $299, $200 less than it initially retailed for at launch. The HTC Flyer, which is a 7-inch tablet like the PlayBook, will be getting the same discount. Meanwhile, the 10-inch 4G-capable HTC Jetstream is holding strong at $699.99 for a 32GB model.

Neither the PlayBook nor the HTC Flyer found much popularity while occupying the same price point as the iPad. The HTC Flyer has a 1.5GHz single-core processor and it’s still running a version of Android that isn’t designed for tablets (2.3 Gingerbread), though it is overlaid with HTC ’s Sense UX. The Flyer’s internal 16GB of storage can’t be expanded, but it does have a respectable set of cameras (1.3-megapixel on the front and 5-megapixel on the back) and comes with a stylus.

Best Buy is calling $299.99 the “permanent lower price” of the HTC Flyer, and it will apply both in-store and online. We’re a little thrilled that a company has finally set off a tablet pricing war, but these discounts may still not be enough to get back all the limelight the Kindle Fire has stolen.




Read the comments on this post

Samsung has agreed to make a number of changes to its Galaxy Tab 10.1 to keep the devices from getting banned for sale in Australia before the holiday shopping season. During hearings in Sydney, lawyers for the company agreed to remove two multitouch features patented by Apple in order to get the device on the market as soon as possible. On Friday, Samsung also offered Apple a proposed settlement agreement, which would let Samsung sell the Galaxy Tab 10.1 as soon as next week.

Apple and Samsung are currently embroiled in as many as 23 lawsuits globally after Apple accused Samsung of "slavishly copying" its designs for the iPhone and iPad in its Galaxy S smartphones and Galaxy Tab tablets. Apple has been been requesting preliminary injunctions in a number of markets where it has filed claims against Samsung, including the US, the Netherlands, Germany, and Australia.

So far, Apple has been awarded preliminary injunctions against the Galaxy Tab in Germany and against some Galaxy S smartphones in The Netherlands. The hearings this week in Australia concern Apple's request for a preliminary injunction there, which could be decided as early as next week.

Throughout the proceedings, the numerous claims Apple brought were essentially reduced to three patent infringement issues, including two for certain multitouch-related features and one that relates to how multitouch-capable touchscreens are manufactured. Samsung agreed on Thursday to remove features that use certain heuristics to filter out "accidental" touch input as well as the "zoom bounce" effect that the iPhone uses when zooming past the minimum or maximum zoom level.

On Friday, Samsung told the court that it also made proposed settlement offer to Apple. The settlement, if Apple agrees to forgo its request for a preliminary injunction, would allow Samsung to launch the Galaxy Tab 10.1 as early as next week. The details haven't been made public, but it could at least bring a temporary truce while Apple presses for a full hearing by the end of the year. Apple's attorneys said of the proposed agreement that "[o]ur friend's inconvenience would be minimised and we would be comforted."

The hearing will continue again on Tuesday, and the judge has encouraged Apple and Samsung to settle the issue before her final decision is entered tentatively by the end of next week.




Read the comments on this post

Lego (or LEGO if you’re adamant about trademarks) has just dipped another toe into electronic gaming with their clever “Life Of George” iOS title. The game uses 144 pieces and a piece of cardboard covered in a dotted pattern. The game is simple: George shows you a picture from his travels and asks you to recreate it using Legos. You have to dig around in your box of pieces to recreate the image and then take a picture of it on the Playmat. Using a brick recognition system from Eye-Cue, the game awards you points for speed and accuracy.

The game is oddly addicting and great for kids. The pieces are bit small so it’s aimed at ages 12 and up but it’s also a great way to build teamwork with one player – maybe a parent – calling out the pieces and the other player putting the object together.

The game marks Lego’s further attempts at capitalizing on its strong lead in children’s toys into new markets. The impetus for Life Of George is based on the success of the Lego series of video games (Lego Harry Potter, Lego Indiana Jones, Lego My Dinner With Andre) as well as its quiet but apparently popular Lego Universe, a brick-based MMO. By adding a casual game like Life of George, with it’s candy-coated graphics and clever gameplay, you grab the kids who may not want to bring their entire Lego collection to Grandma’s but still want to play with their blocks. As a parent, I find that the game is also helpful in teaching counting and hand-eye coordination as you need to find blocks as quickly as possible and then smoosh them together.

Naysayers will note that George does not offer much in the way of imaginative play and I’d agree. But, as we all know, making the thing on the Lego box is often far more exciting than making another “car” using the big green board and a bunch of bricks. There’s a reason behemoths like the 1200-piece Millennium Falcon exists: people love to build things with Lego, but they don’t always want to be structural engineers.

To be clear, Life Of George is a casual game in the vein of Cut The Rope or Angry Birds. You play it for a while, maybe forget about it, maybe dump all of the pieces into the main Lego box down the line. However, at $29 plus a free iOS download (a price I suspect will go down over time) it’s a fun way to interact with your Lego using electronics.

Click to view slideshow.
Herr George has a Facebook page and his game is available on October 1st.

One of the headline features of Amazon's new Kindle Fire tablet is a completely new Web browser called Silk that is designed with a "split" architecture, allowing it to offload much of the heavy lifting to Amazon's cloud computing cluster for superior browsing performance.

When the user requests a webpage in Silk, the request will be routed to Amazon's servers in the cloud. Amazon will load the webpage on the server side, downloading all of the necessary content elements in parallel. After downloading the content, Amazon will send the compiled page—including HTML, JavaSript, CSS, and images—back to the device as a single stream of data.






Read the comments on this post

The gadget fixer-uppers at iFixit took delivery of a Thunderbolt Display—supplies are so constrained that Apple's flagship Chicago location doesn't even have one on display yet—and promptly took it apart in the name of science. What they found inside is basically a 27" iMac sans Intel processor and internal storage.

"Both sides of the logic board are packed with enough chips that it's hard to believe there's no computer inside this display," iFixit's Miro Djuric told Ars. Among the hardware on the logic board is a Light Ridge Thunderbolt controller, Broadcom Gigabit Ethernet controller, several USB 2.0 controller and hub chips, and an LSI open host controller interface. Like the 27" Cinema Display, it also features a 49W class D audio amplifier that drives 2 full range stereo speakers and a tiny embedded subwoofer. The included FaceTime camera is capable of full 720p HD resolution, an upgrade from the camera in previous displays.






Read the comments on this post

Facebook will soon allow its users to integrate all of their music, media, and lifestyle actions and interactions with their profiles, Mark Zuckerberg announced at Facebook’s f8 conference today. Connecting profiles to services like Spotify will allow users to fill out their own curated “Timeline,” so friends can see each others’ media activities both as individuals and aggregated over their entire network, a move that will explode the amount of content on the site.

The new arrangement is part of two new Facebook initiatives, one of which is the Timeline. Users can fill in their Timelines with both content pulled in from other services—say, an article “liked” on Ars Technica or a game played—as well as “real world” activities like photos or status updates. The real world content can be filtered by date into the timeline, so users can fill in their backstory on the site with everything that happened before Facebook existed: moves to a new city, first words as a baby, or every single relationship breakup pre-2004.







Read the comments on this post

In no particular order, here are three key features The Tablet must have to make it onto my “must buy” list.

Use it to make a transparent toaster so you can see if the toast is getting too dark.

Glimpses of the third generation are on display this week at the International Consumer Electronics Show, where manufacturers are previewing e-readers with color screens, interactive graphics and magazine-style layouts.

Get all issues of National Geographic in digital format starting from the first issue in 1888.

Meet the new Kitchen Companion 100 -- the smart scanner for home grocery management. Simply scan the retail barcodes on your store-bought groceries with the IntelliScanner barcode reader, then use the bundled grocery, nutrition, and recipe management software to organize.

These concept gadgets you see before you today, have extremely high chance of getting into production anywhere in the future.

There you have it, the single most profound expression of your love and superiority over token ring in a $175 package.

Stuff you don't need...but you really, really want.

Why? Because it's smart. It's convenient. It's fair. And it's designed to eliminate parking tickets. So basically it runs contradictory to everything city governments were built on.