Technology

TECHNOLOGY magazine Wired has unveiled a stunning demonstration of its new digital edition for tablet PCs.

As you’re probably aware, publishers of traditional ink-and-paper newspapers and magazines are currently trying to work out what their titles will look like in the future.

One of the most exciting options they’re looking at is making interactive digital versions for tablet PCs like the Apple iPad.

Wired this month gave a demo of its digital edition at the TED conference in California.

Watch the video below and remember – it’s not a prototype. It’s the real thing:

Continue reading 'What will the magazine of the future look like?'

GOOGLE has unveiled one of the greatest toys ever – a virtual glass elevator that lets you fly around the world.

Made by a few of the engineers in their spare time, the Liquid Galaxy project is an interactive booth with wraparound LCD screens.

The screens show synchronised views from Google Earth and you can use a six-axis mouse to move your way through air and water.

The effect is stunning. Take a look below:

Continue reading 'Liquid Galaxy project is Google’s glass elevator'

WHAT better way to celebrate the release of a new video game than by stuffing about with its Wikipedia entry?

To mark the launch of Bioshock 2, some over-enthused fan has given the first game’s Wikipedia page a juvenile – but sort of funny – makeover.

For example, instead of just plain old Bioshock, the game is now apparently called The BioShock Series is the Best Thing to Happen to Video Games >:D.

Certain changes have been made to the plot as well – but sadly I can’t repeat them on this blog.

That new name is alright, but I would have thrown in “Ever In The History Of The World!!!!!$#” just to top it off / Screenshot

Continue reading 'Doing it major with the bad behaviour'

GOOD news this week for anyone who’s ever wanted a robotic companion to follow them around and, perhaps, one day, wreak havoc on their enemies.

Fujisoft has unveiled a small humanoid robot called PALRO – a combination of “pal” and “robot” – that can walk, talk, dance, hug and that sort of thing.

Have a look below. Excuse the Japanese:

PALRO can also remember faces, learn new words, look up the weather on the web and then tell you about it and talk to other gadgets like your TV and camera – if they’ve got wireless.

Fujisoft has made about 1000 of the robots for sale in March. They cost ¥298,000 each ($3722) and universities and schools will get first dibs.

This hilarious picture of PALRO is not actually real. PALRO does not come with a laser beam and probably does not want to reduce its creators to a pile of ashes / AP and news.com.au

Continue reading 'Ten things to do with your new friend PALRO'

APPLE fans can be the biggest critics when it comes to new products – but are they too close to see clearly?

Since the iPad was unveiled last week, a very strange thing seems to have happened.

Long-time Apple fans are less than impressed, while PC junkies like me are actually excited.

It reminds me of the launch of the iPod, when the music player got a vicious trashing on Mac-related discussion boards.

History, of course, proved them wrong.

Here’s a taste of the reaction, as it was reported at the time:

Sydney Morning Herald
“Apple finally faces the music and sings”
Garry Barker, 30 Oct 2001

It’s too early to gauge acceptance but there was some instant argument about whether a new MP3 player was truly a “breakthrough” device and some criticism of the 5-gigabyte drive.

“Why not 40 gigs?” demanded a couple of the eternally angst-ridden people who frequent the MacCommunist Internet chat site.

If you needed, let alone could manage, 8,000 individual songs out of your shirt pocket or your handbag, that might be important to you.

Continue reading '‘The iPod? Oh, that’ll never take off!’'

APPLE CEO Steve Jobs has been named Fortune magazine’s CEO of the Decade, and it’s hard to imagine a more worthy candidate.

The man who gave us the personal computer, graphical user interface and mouse has, in the past 10 years, redefined the entertainment and mobile communications industries with the iPod and iPhone, driven computer innovation with the Mac and Mac OS X and brought Apple back from the brink of destruction to become the second-biggest technology company after Microsoft.

Along the way, he found time to build up animation studio Pixar into a powerhouse that attracted Walt Disney.

Jobs had personal battles too, surviving a brush with cancer in 2004 and then complications which saw him receive a liver transplant earlier this year.

Continue reading 'MacChat: Steve does great Jobs'

THERE’S no question Apple’s groundbreaking iPhone and iPod touch platform is the one to beat for emerging portable devices.

In only 2½ years the iPhone has come from nowhere to command up to 30 per cent of the smartphone market in some countries, and competitors are scrambling to emulate its design.

A large factor in the iPhone platform’s success has been the App Store, which is ironic considering Apple’s original intention was for users to only run web applications rather than downloadable, stand-alone programs.

The App Store has enjoyed explosive growth with the number of apps nearing 100,000, and thousands approved each week.

But has the rapid rise come at a cost? Does the App Store - and by extension the iPhone and iPod touch - risk becoming a victim of its own success? Let’s consider the evidence ...

Continue reading 'MacChat: App Store too much of a good thing?'

BEGUN, the multi-touch wars have.

Multi-touch appears to be the new battleground for computers, if two important releases this week are anything to go by.

On the eve of the launch of Windows 7 - Microsoft’s latest version of its dominant desktop operating system that introduces multi-touch support - Apple brought Multi-Touch capabilities to its desktop Macs for the first time, via a new product it calls the Magic Mouse.

Released alongside a new range of desktop iMacs and Mac minis, the Magic Mouse has a contoured trackpad on top that accepts Multi-Touch input, so users can now use combinations of multi-finger swipes and taps to navigate their Mac and perform basic functions.

The Magic Mouse runs on Mac OS X Leopard or Snow Leopard, but not Windows or earlier versions of Mac OS X.

Continue reading 'MacChat: Magic Mouse gives Windows 7 a touch-up'

IS it true? After 24 years, can Windows now be considered a match for the Mac OS? One of America’s most respected tech journalists thinks so.

The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg, who has traditionally recommended Macs over PCs for most users, now says the choice is less clear. While he gives an edge to the Mac for its security and superior bundled software, he says it’s now more of a “toss-up” between the recently released Mac OS X Snow Leopard and the forthcoming Windows 7.

Indeed, back in July, MacChat awarded our smackdown crown to Windows 7 for being most improved, even though we preferred Snow Leopard overall.

Continue reading 'MacChat: Has Windows caught up to the Mac?'

WHAT would the apocalypse look like without all the fire and brimstone?

Continue reading 'Videogeist: October 09 2009'

IT seems the hottest question on Wikipedia is: “What the hell does ‘wiki’ mean?”

According to a website that monitors traffic to the encyclopedia, the entry for wiki is the most-requested page.

Just so we get it out of the way, to paraphrase, a wiki is a website that uses special software to let people edit it collaboratively from their web browser — like Wikipedia.

The entry is the most popular page on the English version of the website this year, as well as last year, according to THEwikiStics. Here are the others:

Top 10 in 2009

1 Wiki
2 The Beatles
3 Michael Jackson
4 Favicon.ico (it’s something web designers need to know about)
5 YouTube
6 Wikipedia
7 Barack Obama
8 Deaths in 2009
9 United States
10 Facebook

Continue reading 'What people really read about on Wikipedia'

THIS could all be happening right now, somewhere on this planet…

Continue reading 'Videogeist: October 02 2009'

SINGER Lily Allen says she intends to quit music and has deleted her blog created to protest illegal file-sharing.

Since Allen was caught plagiarising other people’s work on the blog earlier this week, the whole thing has spiralled out of control.

Read on for a full recap.

Continue reading 'Lily Allen file-sharing scandal spirals out of control'

DOOMSDAY dust storms and apocalyptic video games with bizarre plots were the flavours of the week. Oh, and cute piglets.

Continue reading 'Videogeist: September 25 2009'

CHEEKY pop star Lily Allen has become the face of the music industry’s battle against piracy after starting a blog attacking illegal file-sharers.

There’s just one problem. While Allen’s down on sharing music, she seems to be pretty comfortable with sharing words.

A post made under Allen’s name on the weekend was a direct copy of an article written by journalist Michael Masnick a few days earlier on Techdirt, with no attribution.

The headline, sub-headline and first 135 words of the post are identical to Masnick’s. At the bottom, Allen appended three sentences of her own.

You can compare the original and Allen’s post here.

Continue reading 'Lily Allen shares words for anti-sharing blog post'