I've already posted on rgbFilter about the graphics power of Nvidia's long awaited Tegra platform that should appear on both Google's Android and Windows Mobile in the not to distant future. Beyond processing power, there were some new interfaces demoed at Mobile World Congress in 2009 worth highlighting.

Stantum demonstrated their new multi-touch technology, but what makes it different is that it's using resistive touch screens, as found in many current mobile phones, GPS units and more.

The TouchPark software solution allows for an unlimited number of touch points, accepts stylus, finger or even a paintbrush as an input device and most importantly, has pressure sensitivity. In a video captured by Engadget, a Stantum representative states that their technology can work with current resistive touch screens, and that the TouchPark framework also has 'sub-pixel' resolution, meaning that the accuracy is more refined than the pixel resolution of the screen.

(Video originally recorded by engadget)

Also on display were some new interface designs by TAT (The Astonishing Tribe). First up is a consumer friendly interface dubbed the "Foldout UI"...

Then there's an example of an interface that makes use of eye tracking and tilting to provide a virtual 3D experience. As TAT mentions in their description...

Imagine tilting your mobile so you can look around corners and behind objects in the GUI to access additional information. Imagine layered GUIs where pop-up windows really pop up.

There'll be no shortage of processers able to handle these types of interfaces, either. The Foldout UI was running on the Texas Instruments OMAP 3430 processor (the same processor found in the soon to be released Palm Pre), and Qualcomm has hit the 'high speed' mark with it's 1GHz Snapdragon, currently in the Toshiba TG01 mobile phone.

[posted via rgbFilter]

Labels: interface, mobile, tech, video

Last week, Nine Inch Nails released Ghosts I, part of the 36 track Ghosts I-IV for free, under a Creative Commons licence. It's hardly surprising, as Trent Reznor is one of the few 'established' artists who's willing to try new approaches to distributing his music.

The link below is direct to the NINOfficial torrent:

Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts I (2008)

From the torrent's readme.txt:

Nine Inch Nails: Ghosts I (2008)

Hello from Nine Inch Nails.

We\\\'re very proud to present a new collection of instrumental music, Ghosts I-IV. Almost two hours of music recorded over an intense ten week period last fall, Ghosts I-IV sprawls Nine Inch Nails across a variety of new terrain.

Now that we\\\'re no longer constrained by a record label, we\\\'ve decided to personally upload Ghosts I, the first of the four volumes, to various torrent sites, because we believe BitTorrent is a revolutionary digital distribution method, and we believe in finding ways to utilize new technologies instead of fighting them.

We encourage you to share the music of Ghosts I with your friends, post it on your website, play it on your podcast, use it for video projects, etc. It\\\'s licensed for all non-commercial use under Creative Commons.

We\\\'ve also made a 40 page PDF book to accompany the album. If you\\\'d like to download it for free, visit http://ghosts.nin.com/main/pdf

Ghosts I is the first part of the 36 track collection Ghosts I-IV. Undoubtedly you\\\'ll be able to find the complete collection on the same torrent network you found this file, but if you\\\'re interested in the release, we encourage you to check it out at ghosts.nin.com, where the complete Ghosts I-IV is available directly from us in a variety of DRM-free digital formats, including FLAC lossless, for only $5. You can also order it on CD, or as a deluxe package with multitrack audio files, high definition audio on Blu-ray disc, and a large hard-bound book.

We genuinely appreciate your support, and hope you enjoy the new music. Thanks for listening.


http://ghosts.nin.com

For those interested in the full Ghosts I-IV, you can check out the NIN Ghosts sub site, which also includes a free 40 page PDF download, aka album inserts for the digital audio age.

Labels: fun stuff, tech

At the latest GDC conference, Nvidia announced the latest additions to it's professional line of graphics cards, the Quardo series. If Nvidia's claims are anywhere close to true, the cards have roughly the same processing power as 128 CPUs running at 1.35GHz. They also use the GP-GPU technology, which allows developers to tap into this power for general purpose computing uses.

These cards aren't geared towards the general consumer though, with the Quadro FX 4600 retailing for $1995, the Quadro FX 5600 at $2999, and undetermined for the highest-end Quadro Plex VCS model IV.

And they may even run the Vista Aero interface.

You can read more about them, including the Nvidia press release at this Gizmodo link.

Labels: tech

The next time you're at a party and somebody asks you how the BitTorrent protocol works, you could launch into an explanation about seeders, leechers and distributed systems. Or you could run to the nearest computer and fire up this Java applet which illustrates the concept perfectly.

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Labels: tech

Ever since the cellphone has become ubiquitous, so have reports about the dangers of cellphone radiation, with mixed results. Either we're going to see a global pandemic of brain tumors over the next couple of decades, or not.

In the same vein, the newer WiMAX technology, which allows for (among other things) long-range wireless internet access, seems to be an even bigger threat, if this Inquirer article (UK not National), is to be believed.

within hours of the WiMAX base-station being activated, local hospital emergency services received calls from residents with compaints ranging from sharp headaches and difficulty breathing, blurry vision, and, according to a report, two cases of heart arrhythmia.

The sufferers' symptoms are said to have subsided after they moved away from the base-station.

Now, I'm all for wireless access everywhere, and am glad that my hometown is doing it starting this fall, but let's just hope they stick with good old WiFi for now.

Labels: tech

Ever since the contentious 2003 US Presidential election, a number of groups have been studying the data, looking at potential irregularities and so on.

The most recent issue of Rolling Stone actually has an article online that makes for an interesting summation, though even ostensibly left-leaning websites like Salon are pooh-poohing it, with little coverage in the mainstream news.

But finally, the mainstream news is waking up to the issues surrounding electronic voting.

Watch the punchline... ehm... I mean video, here.

BTW, not to knock bradblog.com, which is a great blog.

Labels: tech

Of course, only if it has anything to do with electo-magnetic fields.

What if, seconds before your laptop began stalling, you could feel the hard drive spin up under the load? Or you could tell if an electrical cord was live before you touched it? For the few people who have rare earth magnets implanted in their fingers, these are among the reported effects -- a finger that feels electromagnetic fields along with the normal sense of touch.

It's a fun, fascinating read, although I don't think I'll be getting a magnet installed anytime soon.

Labels: tech

There were rumblings of this for a while, and now the Toronto Star is saying that the downtown core may see the beginning of the rollout by September!

Canada's mobile-phone giants will be on alert today as Toronto Hydro Corp. details how it plans to turn the country's largest municipality into a massive wireless hotspot, similar to ambitious projects already underway in cities such as Philadelphia and San Francisco.

Personally, I think it's an awesome idea. Right now, we're being screwed over by the big cellular carriers and their joining together to give us "affordable rates" for their "Hotspot" initiative... if you consider $8 an hour affordable...

Hey, maybe getting a data plan would make sense? Hmmm... let's see. At 3 cents a kilobyte, to transfer a 5 megabyte song from your home computer to your PDA/phone or laptop through the cellular network would cost $150. That's NOT a typo. One hundred fifty DOLLARS. Of course, you could go with a monthly plan, such as $5 for 25 MB, or save even more by going with the $100 for 100 MB plan.

If the city can come up with a rate that is in the realm of believability, while enabling those who otherwise can't afford even WIRED dial up, let alone any semblance of broadband, I say more power to them.

Labels: tech

The UMPC is just around the corner now...

A thing of the future...now!

YOU CAN get information on the hottest sales and promotions at the Mall while you drive by.

Yay! SPAM has gone wireless, and in my car while I'm driving! The future looks golden!

YOU CAN compare prices online while you are visiting a store and make the right decision.

Dang, the Canadian Tire 10 kilometers away is selling that chainsaw for $5 cheaper! Let's put all this stuff back and drive over there now...

Woot!

YOU CAN get GPS information while driving or walking.

And so can Microsoft. Now I'm getting scared.

YOU CAN do email, or monitor work while standing in line at the DMV or at any other place you usually got bored at waiting and wasting your time.

YOU CAN surf the internet for the latest news while cooking in the kitchen.

YOU CAN download your music, videos, TV shows, photos and email, chat, IM friends…all from a small, thin device that fits in your purse!

Wow, so I can do all those things that a smartphone or laptop does, yet it's not quite as portable as a smartphone, and not as powerful as a laptop.

Well F me in the A. This sounds like EVERYTHING I dreamed about in a thing "from the future". The worst of both worlds.

Ow well. Still, slap it with a PDA range price and a dirt cheap broadband data plan, and I'd consider getting suckered... erm... I'd sign up... maybe.

Labels: tech

A lot has appeared about Microsoft's Origami in the past few days. Engadget has a pretty good round up, and links, so here's one of their entries. Googling it will find you tons more links...

Given that it's supposed to be an ultraportable device (multiple models rumoured), with a price tag of about $500, I'm guessing that the cheap hardware cost is going to be subsidized by some sort of connectivity plan, probably through some cellular carrier(s) for maximum availability.

If not, then $500 for the device seems extremely low, and I don't see where the "money" is going to be made.

After all, here in Canada, we're still getting screwed by the cellular data plans.

If Origami does something to change the cellular data landscape, I'm all for that.

Labels: tech

My cheap Wacom pen mod, step by step.

1. Lose the plastic rocker that provides right and middle mouse clicking on a Wacom pen.

2. Realize it was vacuumed up by the cleaners over the weekend.

3. Steel yourself for the process of making an impromptu rocker.

4. Bend a small piece of plastic into a U shape that contacts the piezo-electric buttons in the pen shaft.

5. Loosely tape it to the pen.

6. Curse every once in a while when it doesn't accept the clicks.

And here's a crappy pic of the results.

Labels: tech

A friend's laptop recently got infected with a bunch of nasty code. How, I'm not sure, it could have been the WMF exploit or any number of other methods. In any case, one of the items slapped on there was a self re-installing spyware removal tool called "Spyware Strike".

It puts this software on your system, and a fucking ANNOYING systray icon that flashes (and looks a lot like the official M$ security crap), along with a persistently flashing balloon that starts of with "System Instrusion Detected!"

Anyways, this was a new one, so new that the culprit dll "netwrap.dll" wasn't appearing in google searches. I finally managed to get rid of the thing using Killbox!

The full (so far?) removal method can be found here...

Spyware Strike Removal

Labels: tech

A universal video codec? That would be like a holy grail, especially for the growing vidcast/IPTV/term of the week video movement, especially with the recently released iPod with Video.

Of course, I don't think that will EVER happen (jeez, sound pessimistic much).

Right now, the iPod with Video format itself would have a pretty good penetration rate, because let's face it, the iPod is the 800 lb gorilla of portable media players.

Number 2 is probably the PSP, and because of Sony's focus on gaming and UMD movies, it'll probably never be number one in the portable video space (at least for this iteration).

At the same time, there are a lot of people using PDAs to view video on the go, what with multi-gig memory cards dropping in price, and the advent of smartphones like the Treo.

Content providers would be wise, if not a little safe, to go with the iPod video format, because it is/will be #1 for a while, but this means that most everyone else is going to be stuck with transcoding.

Blech.

Transcoding sucks for those using anything other than an iPod.

To appease the masses, a content provider like Digital Live TV offers a cornucopia of formats...

Windows Media:
Quicktime H.264:
video iPod:
XviD:
MPEG4:

Could there be a solution that would be a little more "universal"?

Yep. The PSP's own MP4 format (what's now called the "SP" format from the 1 series firmware). A more recent firmware added a new "AVC" format, but let's ignore that. The "SP" format first appeared on the last generation Sony Clie Palm based PDAs, the Japan-only VZ90, without the annoying pixel count limit that the PSP imposes. The codecs from that device also work on the Clie UX50/40 and TH55.

This is kinda cool, but in a limited, geek kinda way, if you happen to be a Clie user.

Recently, my friend Dave's brother picked up a G5 iPod. After it was charged up, they decided to try a PSP "SP" video on it, and it worked. No transcoding, just transfer and play. It works with the Sony Clie as well.

What makes this even more interesting is that this format will play on other portable devices that support the AAC codec, including Palm and PocketPC devices running v.66 of TCPMP with the AAC plugin. Other players for the PocketPC are also apparently capable of playing AAC encoded audio, but I only had a single opportunity to try this out, with success mind you.

A video encoded at 384Kbps, 30fps and 320x240 yeilds nice results, and a reasonable file size (3 MB per second), while one encoded at 768kbps doubles the file size, and looks spectacular. Heck, if one wants to provide a lower bandwidth, you can knock it back to 256Kbps, and it's still tolerable on a portable screen.

There are some great encoders available for downloading, such as PSP Video 9 but for the last little while, I've been doing it the JAmerican Way, which allows a Windows user to right-click on a video file, and automatically convert it.

Similarly, video encoded this way also plays on Macs, as well as PC's with Quicktime installed.

In the end, the PSP video isn't a catch all solution, but it comes pretty darn close to meeting just about everyone's portable media needs, and means that more CPU cycles could be dedicated to either SETI @ Home or even better, Folding @ Home.

Labels: tech

I like it. I'd buy one for $300, if it means $200 goes to the cause!

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Labels: tech

Posted earlier this month at The Guardian UK's Tech blog. Interesting. I'd probably put this in a different order, but the only author that I think should have made the cut is Greg Egan. How could geeks not love his stuff?

And it was cool to see The Watchmen make the list!

1. The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams 85% (102)
2. Nineteen Eighty-Four -- George Orwell 79% (92)
3. Brave New World -- Aldous Huxley 69% (77)
4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? -- Philip Dick 64% (67)
5. Neuromancer -- William Gibson 59% (66)
6. Dune -- Frank Herbert 53% (54)
7. I, Robot -- Isaac Asimov 52% (54)
8. Foundation -- Isaac Asimov 47% (47)
9. The Colour of Magic -- Terry Pratchett 46% (46)
10. Microserfs -- Douglas Coupland 43% (44)
11. Snow Crash -- Neal Stephenson 37% (37)
12. Watchmen -- Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons 38% (37)
13. Cryptonomicon -- Neal Stephenson 36% (36)
14. Consider Phlebas -- Iain M Banks 34% (35)
15. Stranger in a Strange Land -- Robert Heinlein 33% (33)
16. The Man in the High Castle -- Philip K Dick 34% (32)
17. American Gods -- Neil Gaiman 31% (29)
18. The Diamond Age -- Neal Stephenson 27% (27)
19. The Illuminatus! Trilogy -- Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson 23% (21)
20. Trouble with Lichen - John Wyndham 21% (19)

Labels: tech