Archive for the ‘Gadgets’ Category
Apple Will Be Just Fine, Thanks To Aggressive Jobsian Minimalism
Tech should be approachable, artful, and radically simple
The Jobsian philosophy is so fundamentally different from the ethos of the other tech giants--Microsoft especially, but also Sony, Google, Facebook, and (until last week) HP--that it's surprising that Jobs came from the same place and time. The core Silicon Valley companies all sprung from the tinkerers-in-garages set, a state of mind that's remained essential to techies decades later. Jobs was a key member of that group, and his work with Apple in the company's early years is not really so different from Microsoft's early work, though Jobs was always less of a businessman and perhaps a bit more autocratic (especially as regards licensing).
After he was ousted by Apple's board in 1985, he spent a decade creating another company, NeXT Computing, from scratch. It's tempting to chalk up his later success to some of the life changes that happened during this time (which you can read more about in )--meeting his biological family, getting married, having two children, beginning to identify as Buddhist--but the change in attitude and work habits that enabled his success might be more easily explained with simple math. The guy was barely 30 years old when he was forced out of Apple, and 40 when he came back. And it was when he came back that his vision coagulated into something tangible.
The Jobsian vision is a variation on minimalism, something completely unexpected when dealing with computers, inherently complex devices. To Jobs, computers are for real people. Not businessmen (ahem HP) or corporations (ahem Microsoft), but people. Computers should be beautiful objects. (Jobs at one point said, when resigning from Apple in 1985, "If Apple becomes a place where computers are a commodity item, where the romance is gone, and where people forget that computers are the most incredible invention that man has ever invented, I'll feel I have lost Apple.") Computers should be intuitive and simple, but never dull. It is the duty of the computer's maker to discover the best way to do things, and to that makes that path difficult. And when you make something simple, the details become the most important thing.
our guide to Steve Jobs's minimalist ethos.
The easiest comparison, to me, is to a chef. Take the best ingredients, assemble them simply but precisely, and present a finished dish the way it should be consumed. No extra garnishes, nothing superfluous. Too much is worse than too little. No optional sauces, no mix-and-match, no "add this if you want." The chef is the expert here, not the patron.
That mentality has irked or infuriated the tinkerers, as well it should. There's certainly a sense of smugness--the Jobsian philosophy says "I know the way this should be done." And it has led Apple astray, sometimes. But Apple is also backed by undeniably brilliant engineers and designers (chief among them Jon Ives), which is why their products are successes more often than not. A composed dish can be amazing, or awful, but a buffet can only rise to a certain height. That's the Jobsian philosophy, anyway.
That minimalism has had an effect just about everywhere. Apple isn't just a gadget-maker; the products spearheaded under Jobs are in the Museum of Modern Art. They've inspired similar-minded folks in all kinds of disparate industries, consciously or not. Apple was one of the first to fiercely embrace the use of certain typographic ideas (especially the Helvetica font), which is now used in just about every location imaginable, especially all over the web. Every tech company at least tried the start their own content stores, from Microsoft's Zune to Sony's Connect (some were more successful than others). Companies like American Apparel copied Apple's minimalism, while just about every ad strives to hit an "Apple-like" note of innovation and hipness. Apple's success in the future won't rely on whoever's sitting in the boss's seat--it'll come from hiring brilliant folks and adhering to the model already in place.
Apple isn't like Sony, which crumpled in ability and influence after the departure of its two founders. That's because Sony's founders were amazing engineers and designers--but that's it. Without their two stars, Sony had trouble. But Apple has a guiding philosophy to lead it, one that can function with all kinds of different leaders. With any luck, Apple will be just fine.
Brilliant Teenagers, World-Saving Tech and Dance Parties at Microsoft’s Imagine Cup
Teams from all over the world descend on New York City to launch their innovations: a note-taking system for visually impaired students, an in-car device that monitors driver safety and more.
Click here to launch a gallery of the winners and highlights of the Microsoft Imagine Cup.
Microsoft’s Imagine Cup is an annual student technology competition that draws entries from all over the globe. I rolled into town for the worldwide finals, held this year in New York City. This is the competition's ninth year, and the first time the finals have been held in the U.S. Over 350,000 students ages 16 and up in 183 countries registered this year to compete in the Imagine Cup's nine competitions. Six of these are smaller, more specific challenges and didn’t have as large a presence at the finals. The big three, the holy trinity of the Imagine Cup, were game design (split up into mobile, web and Windows/Xbox), embedded development (building a separate, stand-alone device), and software development (a more general category). The top 100 teams (made up of 1 to 4 students each) in those three categories were invited to New York to showcase their projects. The top three teams in each category receive cash prizes, but the "Imagine Cup" itself goes to the winner in software development, last year received by Team Skeek from Thailand for their software that translated English into sign language in real time. Even for those who don't win, the exposure the Imagine Cup brings is proclaimed by several teams to be invaluable.
By the time I arrived, the competition had already been narrowed down to the top 21 teams, but the Times Square Marriott was still overrun with color-coded badge-wearing competitors, judges, Microsoft employees and international press. Banners hung around the hotel said “Make new friends. Gain new skills. Change the world.”
That’s the theme of the Imagine Cup: “Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems.” In developing their projects, teams were asked to think about the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals, international development goals with the deadline of 2015. Many of the teams did address such goals as environmental sustainability, or combating disease. But a lot of the students are more personally attached to their projects. There’s the legally blind student who developed a system for visually impaired students to take notes more easily. A team from China made a hands-free computer control software because a team member’s mother is disabled. “These students are brilliant,” said Suzi Levine, director of communications and education at Microsoft. “They come bringing in their life experiences.”
The projects themselves are amazing. They are all, perhaps unsurprisingly, designed with Microsoft technology. I did see a Wiimote in one of the projects, and Levine assured me that the only Microsoft product teams are required to use is the .Net framework for software design. Regardless, it was always Bing maps, not Google maps; always Windows Phone 7, not the iPhone.
Finalists in the top three categories spent the next-to-last day of competition pitching and demoing their projects in front of a panel of judges who grilled them with questions. Teams were judged on how well they adhered to the theme, how well they communicated that their project could make a viable business, and how good of a project it was.
All the finalists put on remarkably polished presentations, but the software developers were the rock stars of the Imagine Cup. Perhaps it’s because they were whittled down from a larger pool than the other categories, so the competition was steeper. Whatever the reason, people actually interrupted their presentations to applaud. Fellow competitors with yellow badges scattered throughout the packed ballroom stood up and whistled, and judges who earlier in the day were congratulating teams on “making it this far” were now saying things like “that was awesome” and “I can’t think of any questions.” When OneBuzz, a team that developed a malaria prediction software, finished their presentation, they raised their index fingers in the air in unison like a boy band signing out after a concert. Ladies and gentlemen, OneBuzz has left the building.
While not all the presentations had that stadium feel, every team, across categories, has the strangest combination of idealism and pragmatism. Coming in, I expected pie-in-the-sky ideas for projects that could never really be implemented, or maybe just a more grown-up science fair, all whizzes and bangs but no practicality. There was an undeniable “change the world” mentality pervading the event. The leader of a French team whose television system allows seniors to easily send and receive messages actually said “the return investment will be in smiles.”
But what might come across as naïveté is belied by the depth of their knowledge about what it will take to actually get their project on the market. Almost everyone has an impressively detailed business plan involving field testing or clinical trials. They know their target audience and who they need to pitch to for funding. And they have no illusions about the flaws of their product, easily rattling off a list of improvements yet to be made when the judges inevitably ask. Many of the students see the Imagine Cup as their chance to get venture funding, according to Levine. “We try to pour lighter fluid on that,” she says.
All of the lighter fluid, and money, that Microsoft has poured into the Imagine Cup culminated at the awards ceremony. There was an emcee (a Microsoft employee), a celebrity presenter (Eva Longoria, who proclaimed herself a “techie”) and fog machines. Every student was promised a Windows Phone 7.5 when it comes out. Crazy mounted lights zoomed over the kids before the show as they draped themselves in their countries’ flags and danced to situation-appropriate songs like “Empire State of Mind,” “Don’t Stop Believing” and something about it not being about the money.
And it really isn’t. Yes, the event is extravagant and yes, the winners are handed giant five-figure checks. But Levine tells me many of the game designers will go on to release their games for free. The presentations I saw were very concerned with their business models, but not so much with the profit. They wanted to get funding to be able to produce their projects. This competition is not the endgame; it is just a stop along the way.
Stop Rummaging for Your Phone and Check Texts, Emails on Cell-Connected Watches
Oh, and they tell time
Now: Text Check
Tethered to your BlackBerry or Android handset with Bluetooth, the inPulse watch (pictured above) displays texts, e-mails and your call log on its 1.3-inch screen, so your phone can stay tucked away. Downloadable apps allow users to check in on Facebook and load Twitter feeds.
Allerta inPulse $150;
Soon: Long Life
Most Bluetooth-equipped devices run on lithium-ion batteries, which require daily charging. uses a new, low-energy form of Bluetooth to pull caller ID and texts from your cellphone, so the timepiece runs for two years on one watch battery. The new Bluetooth standard, which will arrive next year, saves power by transmitting data intermittently, not continuously as it does now. We previewed the inPulse back in January at CES--it didn't even have a name at that point, but
Casio watch prototype with Bluetooth Low Energy;
Later:Wrist Net
As high-speed-cellular radios shrink to fit behind watch faces, your wrist could become a hotspot. The MetaWatch prototype, based on a concept by HP and built by Fossil, could one day create its own Wi-Fi network to share with nearby phones, tablets and other Web-ready gadgets. Similar watches may also have flash memory to store data--such as maps and calendars--for quick access.
Metawatch; ,
Sponsored Post: Philips EnduraLED
Up to 15 if it’s the right kind! Get it?! Eh… OK, it’s not much of a joke, but you really could go 15 years without replacing one of Philips’ AmbientLED flood lights, which is hilarious if you’re an electrical engineering major, trust us.
LED technology is like a journeyman quarterback who has his breakout season in his forties. What began as little more than the red digital display on alarm clocks and calculators has advanced to include polychromatic applications in traffic lights, televisions and now as a substitute for less efficient incandescent and fluorescent interior lighting nearly 50 years later.
Philips AmbientLED indoor flood lights fit into existing fixtures and are available in three intensities: R20 (which replaces a 40-watt halogen spot light of equivalent brightness), PAR30L (which replaces a 50-watt bulb) and PAR38 (which replaces a 45-watt bulb). What all this means is that Philips AmbientLED indoor floods produce more light per watt than conventional lighting, which translates directly into a savings of as much as 80 percent on your electric bill. For instance, the R20, at seven watts, is projected to save $132 over its lifetime compared with the 11 standard bulbs it will replace.
Plus, the two PAR lights allow for the sustainability of plants and other organisms that require sunlight for growth by using photosynthetically active radiation, while generating virtually no heat. Solid-state construction means these bulbs can survive a drop, something that’s of great concern with more fragile compact fluorescents that contain mercury, which Philips AmbientLEDs do not.
But none of that means anything if Philips’ LEDs don’t provide a comfortably-lit environment. Available in two models, the R20 offers cool white and warm white options that are designed for accenting within the home. Meanwhile, the PAR30L and PAR38 bulbs are intended for use in recessed and track lighting, giving off a soft white light that won’t fade fabrics or colors.
It’s not often that a new technology hits the trifecta of superior quality, longer life and overall cost savings, but Philips AmbientLEDs do just that. And if you’re of retirement age, they may be the last bulbs you ever buy!
For more information from Philips, visit their site here:
MIT’s Smarter Glasses-Free 3-D Tech Provides Realistic Multiple Perspectives, Wider Angle
Glasses-free 3-D essentially works like this (visual aids and a more thorough primer ): for each frame, two images have to be created, one tailored for the left eye, one for the right. Those images are sliced into thin vertical segments and interwoven. The images are then viewed through a kind of filter--called the parallax barrier--that essentially is a screen with a bunch of vertical slits in it.
The parallax barrier is tuned to the horizontal separation between the human eyes. So with the barrier in place--and if the viewer is in the correct spatial orientation in relation to the screen--the left eye only sees the image tailored for it, and the same is true for the right eye. Like magic, a 3-D image emerges.
But limitations abound. For one, the parallax barrier in devices that have a 2-D/3-D option is usually a second LCD screen placed atop the standard, 2-D display (this is how the 3DS works). Two screens eat up more power, plus the rear screen must operate at higher brightness to compensate for all of the light being blocked by the barrier, cutting battery life in half (or sucking more power from the wall). The vertical barrier also restricts viewing angles and doesn’t allow for multiple perspectives. If you’re not sitting more or less in front of the screen, the 3-D illusion collapses. For portable devices like the 3DS where the screen might be rotated or tilted, this is particularly problematic.
The MIT team solves this by dispensing with the usual (and restrictive) vertical-strip parallax barrier. Their HR3D method uses a dual LCD method like the 3DS, but instead of that vertical-stripe pattern their barrier consists of thousands of small slits tailored to the image underneath. As the image changes, so does the barrier. This requires a lot of math, fueled by an algorithm they created to constantly change the barrier’s orientation to let light pass in a variety of ways.
This means not only does their HR3D barrier let through more light in more ways (requiring less brightness and enabling less power consumption), but it also can provide multiple 3-D perspectives and a wider viewing angle. Basically, it cleverly fixes most everything we hate about glasses-free 3-D.
The drawback at this point is that most of that saved power goes to carrying out the complex computations needed to keep that shape-shifting barrier humming along. The next step for the researchers is to refine and simplify the math to reduce the amount of intensive computing involved.
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MIT’s Smarter Glasses-Free 3-D Tech Provides Realistic Multiple Perspectives, Wider Angle
Glasses-free 3-D essentially works like this (visual aids and a more thorough primer ): for each frame, two images have to be created, one tailored for the left eye, one for the right. Those images are sliced into thin vertical segments and interwoven. The images are then viewed through a kind of filter--called the parallax barrier--that essentially is a screen with a bunch of vertical slits in it.
The parallax barrier is tuned to the horizontal separation between the human eyes. So with the barrier in place--and if the viewer is in the correct spatial orientation in relation to the screen--the left eye only sees the image tailored for it, and the same is true for the right eye. Like magic, a 3-D image emerges.
But limitations abound. For one, the parallax barrier in devices that have a 2-D/3-D option is usually a second LCD screen placed atop the standard, 2-D display (this is how the 3DS works). Two screens eat up more power, plus the rear screen must operate at higher brightness to compensate for all of the light being blocked by the barrier, cutting battery life in half (or sucking more power from the wall). The vertical barrier also restricts viewing angles and doesn’t allow for multiple perspectives. If you’re not sitting more or less in front of the screen, the 3-D illusion collapses. For portable devices like the 3DS where the screen might be rotated or tilted, this is particularly problematic.
The MIT team solves this by dispensing with the usual (and restrictive) vertical-strip parallax barrier. Their HR3D method uses a dual LCD method like the 3DS, but instead of that vertical-stripe pattern their barrier consists of thousands of small slits tailored to the image underneath. As the image changes, so does the barrier. This requires a lot of math, fueled by an algorithm they created to constantly change the barrier’s orientation to let light pass in a variety of ways.
This means not only does their HR3D barrier let through more light in more ways (requiring less brightness and enabling less power consumption), but it also can provide multiple 3-D perspectives and a wider viewing angle. Basically, it cleverly fixes most everything we hate about glasses-free 3-D.
The drawback at this point is that most of that saved power goes to carrying out the complex computations needed to keep that shape-shifting barrier humming along. The next step for the researchers is to refine and simplify the math to reduce the amount of intensive computing involved.
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Video: New Modular Robot Fits Together to Form Larger Modular Robots
Researchers at the University of California-Davis have applied for a patent on the robot, which they say could be used for search and rescue operations as well as robotics research.
Its two modules have two joints at the center, which can rotate 180 degrees, and two rotating faceplates at each end, as the . The faceplates turn continuously, allowing the robot to roll along as though it were driving. Future research will explore clusters of iMobots working together in even larger modular platforms.
Creators Graham Ryland and Harry Cheng received a $150,000 National Science Foundation grant to start Barobo Inc., a business aimed at commercializing the iMobot. You can find out how to get one .
Modular robots could be a more cost-effective way to build robot helpers for a variety of tasks, like search-and-rescue snakebots or tree-climbing spy cams. The inventors hope it will be for sale by the end of the year.
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