YouTube Introduces Live Streaming

Posted on April 11, 2011 by Alan Shazan

Late last week, Google’s video site YouTube released a page that focuses on live programing, stating that users have been requesting additional live streams.

“With over two billion views a day, it’s easy to think about YouTube as a place to watch videos recorded in the past,” the company said in a blog. “But you’ve told us you want more, and that includes events taking place right now. In response, we’ve live streamed a number of popular concerts, sporting events and interviews, but primarily on a one-off basis.”

What Will It Do, and When?

According to the site, YouTube live will “integrate live streaming capabilities and discovery tools directly into the YouTube platform for the first time.”

YouTube partners will begin to stream live content very soon. “The goal is to provide thousands of partners with the capability to live stream from their channels in the months ahead,” the site explained. “In order to ensure a great live stream viewing experience, we’ll roll this offering out incrementally over time.”

YouTube users will be able to subscribe to their favorite live-streaming YouTube partners, and be notified for upcoming streams. This weekend, live streams will include a 7pm presentation of The DigiTour: Live from Google HQ!, which has been described as a “first ever large scale 6 week national tour bringing your favorite YouTube musicians to you.”

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iPad 2 Popular in the Afterlife

Posted on April 4, 2011 by Alan Shazan

In Malaysia, Chinese families are scrambling to purchase paper replicas of the iPad 2 to burn for their dead, honoring an ancient tradition.

The Tomb Sweeping, or Qingming, Festival, is a time duting which Asian communities honor their ancestors by burning replicas of luxury items and money. The tradition comes from Confucian belief in the importance of family loyalty.

“Some of my customers have dreams where their departed relatives will ask for luxury items including the iPad 2,” explained Jeffrey Te, a prayer item shopkeeper. “I can only offer them the first iPad model,” he continued. He went on to explain that he had ordered 300 iPad 2 replicas, but they were sold out before he could even unpack them.

At the shop, iPads sell for a dollar each, and they all include 888GB, an important number in Chinese culture. A device with 16GB costs $499 for the living.

Some Chinese believe that the iPads have no place in the ancient tradition. “They belong to the older generation. If you give all these so-called iPads, they don’t know how to use it,” explained Thomas Soong, 61. “So traditionally we give them shoes, shirts…. All the necessities.

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RIM Acquires tinyHippos, Inc.

Posted on March 28, 2011 by Alan Shazan

Research in Motion, the maker of the BlackBerry, has recently announced that it has bought tinyHippos Inc. The Ontario-based startup company invented Ripple, a mobile app development and testing program.

Tyler Lessard, vice president of global alliances and developer relations for RIM said the company was acquired because of their “extensive experience in web and mobile widget/web development.”

The transaction comes just before RIM releases its Playbook tablet in April. The tablet market is a difficult one to enter, with Apple’s iPad currently dominating sales, and with devices running on the Android platform following close behind.

The BlackBerry maker has said that their new tablet will support Android apps. It will have the potential to include more than 150,000 apps, according to RIM.

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Kenyan Wildlife Service Fixes Eight Elephants with GPS Collars

Posted on March 21, 2011 by Alan Shazan

Aside from creating more convenient methods of communication and entertainment such as the iPad 2, technology has many other important uses. For example, the Kenyan Wildlife Service recently fixed eight elephants with GPS collars.

These devices will help the organization study the elephants’ migration patterns in the Tsavo East National Park, as well as monitor the elephants’ health. The tracking devices will also enable the park rangers to better combat poaching, and resolve other human-elephant conflicts without difficulty.

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Apple’s iPad 2 Completely Sold Out

Posted on March 14, 2011 by Alan Shazan

Stores have completely run out of the new iPad 2 following its debut weekend. Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray Co. publicized that Apple has sold as many as 500,000 devices.

Target, Apple, and Best Buy Co. stores are completely sold out, and the Apple website is now stating that orders will take up to a month to be delivered. Just a week ago, delivery was marked at one week. The original iPad was also a major hit back in April, selling 300,000 units in 24 hours.

Munster said: “iPads aew sold out across virtually all channels. We are unable to find any availability.”

A spokeswoman for Apple said “Demand for the next generation iPad has been amazing and we are working hard to get iPad 2 into the hands of every customer who wants one as quickly as possible.”

In New York, a college student thought of a creative way to use Apple’s success to her advantage. Pitching a tent in front of the store, Amanda Foote waited in line for 41 hours before selling her spot for $900 dollars! For a video of an interview with the young businesswoman, click here.

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Skype’s New Use

Posted on March 7, 2011 by Alan Shazan

In a world that spins on an axis of technology, it’s not surprising that people are now reverting to Skype in order to join in holy matrimony.

This past Saturday, a Californian couple’s wedding plans were upset when the groom caught a lung infection that left him in an isolation room of the hospital. The couple, Samuel Kim and Helen Oh, was expecting guests and family from New York as well as from their native Korea. When Kim first realized he was sick, he was scared to tell his fiancé for fear of ruining her special day. Later, when she found out, they improvised and held the wedding despite his absence by using the Web video conferencing system.

The Bride Held Her Ground

In an interview with Reuters from his hospital bed, Kim said “Guests said it was inspirational, they really admired my fiancé for being able to stand at the altar in the manner that she did, alone and not crying the whole time. She was able to hold her ground and I was able to hold my ground, not crying or anything.”

Oh admitted that the Skype wedding was not the ideal ceremony, but that guests were happy. “He said he will make up for it, he promised me he’s going to be the best husband in the world,” she said. “He felt really terrible that he wasn’t there.” She added that she “couldn’t have done it without God.”

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The US Military to Lend a Hand in Development of Power Storage Device

Posted on March 3, 2011 by Alan Shazan

The US military, as part of their never-ending search for energy, has plans to lend a hand in the development of advanced power storage devices. The project will be in collaboration with a specific branch of the Energy Department that deals with innovation in risky but prospective technologies.

The Department of Defense is the single greatest energy consumer in the world. Officials have said that the department will join forces with the Energy Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or Arpa-E, in an effort to create technologies that can benefit civilians as well.

“The steady march of technology has created a voracious appetite for energy in the military,” said Ray Mabus, US Navy Secretary. He went on to explain that during the Vietnam War, Marine platoons used two or three radios on patrol. Now, squads in Afghanistan take more than ten. Even if the soldiers were to use solar panels to generate energy, the lack of effective power storage devices would put the military at risk.

“We need the ability to effectively store the energy we create- to be able to use it when it’s need, and to use it where it’s needed,” Mabus said.

 

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Apple Launches Event to Show Off the iPad 2

Posted on February 24, 2011 by Alan Shazan

Apple is preparing for next week’s event, during which it will present the latest generation of iPads as it readies itself for increasing competition in the tablet market.

The event will take place on March 2nd at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. Reporters were invited via email this week. The invitation was made to look like a calendar page with the number 2 enlarged in the center. The number is peeled back slightly to reveal a peek of the familiar iPad. The invite states “Come see what 2011 will be the year of.”

The new iPad, which will have to compete with dozens of new tablets this year, is expected to hit stores in April. Last year, Apple sold just under 15 million iPads. Analysts claim that the company should double the amount this coming year.

Industry experts believe that at next week’s event Apple will showcase a thinner, lighter, speedier version of their tablet, with the addition of a front-facing camera to enable video chat. Some hold that Apple has added a chip that enables the use of CDMA networks such as Verizon Wireless.

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Motorola’s Xoom Priced at $799

Posted on February 17, 2011 by Alan Shazan

Motorola’s Xoom tablet is priced at $799 at Verizon Wireless. The WiFi-only version is available for $600. Chief executive Sanjay Jha said “competing with Apple you have to deliver premium products.” He added that the Xoom software is upgradeable.

Motorola is a entering an already bustling market for tablet computers, the first of which being Apple’s iPad that was created last year.

“I am as focused on Android as I have ever been. As a result of Nokia adopting Microsoft it’s possible that some of the other players concentrate on Android,” Jha said. He continued to say that he hopes that alternative operating systems will stay on the market as well. “I hope there will be at least three or four. I love Android, but I hope as hell there won’t be just one.”

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HP Announces the “TouchPad”

Posted on February 10, 2011 by Alan Shazan

Hewlett-Packard Co. recently announced its “TouchPad” that will be released this summer. The company believes the tablet will keep them up and running in the market next to Apple’s iPad and similar Google devices.

HP’s 9.7 inch, 1.5 lb tablet runs off the webOS operating system. It features a high-speed, dual core Qualcomm Inc chip and the Adobe Flash Player, and supports video calls as well.

The TouchPad is to be priced to compete with the iPad, which starts at $499. The first model to be launched will be a WiFi only model, and a second, 3G model will be released later this year.

HP also announced the release of two new smartphones; the Veer and the Pre3. Like the TouchPad, both phones are based on the webOS software. Executives have shared that they expect to add the software to many other devices, including PCs. The company feels that webOS will “complement” the Microsoft software.

Todd Bradley, PC division chief, said “We’re thinking beyond today. We have a commitment to extend the webOS footprint even further as the year progresses.” 

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