How to Check if Chrome is Using Hardware Accelerated Graphics

Hardware accelerated graphics is something that is becoming increasingly important in web browsers, as WebApps continue to push the limits of what you can have on a web page. After a long time brewing in the development versions, Google finally brings Hardware accelerated drawing on Canvas and WebGL to the masses with its latest Chrome 18.

However, you'll need to have a supported graphic card, or else you'll be relying on your CPU to do all the heavy processing (the WebGL software rendered is also one of the new features of Chrome, as it will allow everyone to see WebGL content even if they don't have a suitable GPU - albeit at reduced performance.)

But, how can you now if your Chrome is actually using your graphics card GPU to speed things up?

It's actually quite easy... You need only to navigate to chrome://gpu on your Chrome, and you'll get a report of what your graphics system is capable of (and even a performance estimate.)

MS Courier becomes Real... on the iPad

If you still recall Microsoft's Courier project back in 2009, you'll know just how much we all wish to be able to use tablets as out future multipurpose note-taking notebooks.
Unfortunately, Courier never became a reality... until now.

Three years later, users can now use their tablets to do the same kind of stuff shown by the Courier project, thanks to Tapose. Curiously, it's not available for a Windows Tablet but for the most popular Tablet on the market right now: Apple's iPad.

It wasn't easy. This App was rejected several times by Apple, due to its windowing system and notification and widget system... But at last it got through and is now available in the App Store.

It's one of those Apps that will certainly be used to showcase the kind of use Tablets can allow, and jst how much they'll be able to change the way things work in many areas of our society: from teaching/learning, to all kinds of jobs and professional usage, and lots other places we can't even imagine right now.

P.S. This post was originally published here in Portuguese by mistake - sorry. And thanks to everyone who sent an email warning me!



[via The Verge]

Low-Cost Touchscreen Feedback from NEC

It's not the futuristic electrostatic force field generation that can create different touch feelings over a touchscreen - like the one some expected to see used on the new iPad - but NEC was aiming for a far simpler and cheaper touchscren feedback method.

The key is a movable platform that allows the touchscreen to be slightly pulled in any directon, and I can really imagine it could be quite effective.

My only concern is that, being a mechanical system, wouldn't it be prone to higher failure rates, due to users pressing harder and harder to battle its movement?

Guess we'll have to wait a little while longer to find out... But I'm sure this is bound to become the next "big thing" after the high-resolution high-density tablet screens become commonplace.

iOS Fast WiFi Connection Leaks Information

I'm not really a network expert, but something that I always loved about my iPhone was/is its ability to "instantly" connect to the WiFi networks when I get home or to work. Putting my Android Phone side by side with my iPhone, and waking them up at the same time, the iPhone can get immediate internet access, while on my Android I have to wait several seconds that feel like an eternity.

Sometime ago, I remember reading about how Apple achieved that feat, with the iOS attempting to connect to the three previous WiFi networks simultaneously, hoping that it would "get lucky" and speeding up the process dramatically. For most cases, it does.

But now, someone decided to turn that speeding up procedure into a security risk, because anyone in a public WiFi network you connect to could have access to the MAC IDs of your previously connected WiFi networks.

Considering your MAC addresses are already being publicly broadcast (for anyone in the vicinity of your WiFi network), I don't think this is a greater security "leak" than any other thing you're willing to do over WiFi - and, personally, I prefer the convenience of the instant WiFi access that iOS is currently offering, over the privacy of somw WiFi networks MAC IDs.

Samsung Face Mapping

We've all seen excelent examples of what can be done with projection mapping. The technique by which projectors can breathe life into all sorts of inanimate objects, buildings, and even automobiles.

But, to promote the arrival of its first Dual SIM smartphone in Portugal, Samsung has decided to apply the same concept to... a person's face.

Here's the first ever Face Mapping project done in Portugal and the results, as you're about to see, are equally as impressive and mesmerizing! :)

 

Draw Something... Like Money

Draw Something by OMGpop is the latest newcomer that is taking the world by storm. A simple "pictionary-like" game, where players all over the world put their drawing skills to the test, while others try to figure out the answer of what those cryptic lines mean - and I'm not referring to those that can actually draw, as we can see when looking at the best examples of what players are drawing.

Being just "another game", no one could predict that in just a few weeks it would become one of the most played games worldwide,  attracting the full attention of Zynga (makers of the popular Farmville, Cityville and countless other games) which bought the company for $180 million.

With over 35 million App downloads (for iOS and Android), and over 1 billions drawings, no one can really say if this is a game that will keep growing, or if it will quickly bore players that will soon move on to other games. But... for Charles Forman, founder of OMGpop... that won't stop him having a big smile on his face for a very long time.

[via NYtimes]

Paste Images Directly to the Web

It's kind of sad to notice that, even with decades of computer and software evolution, there are still so many "basic" things that make us perform dumb repetitive steps in order to do it. Take, for instance, the sharing of a simple screenshot of your desktop on the web.

You'll need to:
1) Press PrtSc to transfer your screenshot image to the clipboard
2) open a image editing program
3) paste the image into the program
4) save the image somewhere, with some name
5) upload the image to some web site to host it and share it
6) delete the temporary image on your computer

Is this really acceptable in our day and age? What if it could be done in a much simpler way?

Thankfully it can. Thanks to Snaggy you can paste your image directly to the web. Making the thing as simple as:

1) Press PrtSc (or copy any image from any other source)
2) Press paste on the Snaggy web page

... Much simpler, no? Kind of makes us wonder why doesn't every other image uploading service allow a similar way to upload images?

Seagate Breaks the 1 Terabit per square Inch Barrier

Running low on hard disk space? Not enough storage to keep all your high definition movies and lossless audio collection? Filling up gigabytes with dozens of family videos in HD and 16MP photos in Raw format?

Well, once again, the impossible becomes possible, and Seagate paves the way to even larger hard drives with a new technique that allows them to store over 1Terabit of data per square inch.

What does this mean?

For the immediate future it means we'll be starting to see 6TB 3.5" drives, and 2TB 2.5" drives. But in the future this same technique will allow drives to grow up to 60TB! That should be more than enough for most people... not to mention how much extra space that will mean for companies like Google and Amazon, will all their petabytes of data requirements.

iOS Waiting Apps Bug

The latest iOS 5.1 was eagerly expected by thousands of iPhone 4S users that have been living a nightmare with poor battery performance, frequent network dropouts, and the dreaded Invalid SIM issue. For the most part, the latest iOS did fix most of it - although some friends, that never had any issue, are now reporting severely degraded autonomy, even in older 3GS models... which prompts me to believe there are still things left to be done.

Things like the one that I'm writing to you about today, and that - as it affects the most elemental corner stone of the whole iOS experience... it's something that I think Apple shouldn't be allowed to toy with as it seems to be doing.

I'm referring to App updates and installs from the App Store.

Ever since the iPhone first got push notifications that I complained about why wouldn't Apple notify us of available App updates? Indeed, some rare odd times it seemed to do that, but for the most part you were left with the task of manually visiting App store to see if there were any updates... which was kind of annoying.

Well, in the past few day, it seems that Apple finally got to do what I've always wished for, and every day I was waking up to an iPhone with the App Store icon stating how many App updates were available: great!

Unfortunately, that feeling didn't last long... because as soon as I tried to update any app, it got stuck in a "waiting" state...

Trying to toggle it to pause/loading had no effect... the updating or installing Apps just sit there... waiting for "something"... After several attempts I did figure out that given enough time, they eventually install/update. (I now install the updates only before going to bed, so that by morning - hopefully - it's done.)

The worst part is not even that we're unable to use the "waiting" Apps (which can be annoying if it happens to be an App you really need to use), but the fact that there seems to be no logic to what that waiting thing will stop waiting and start downloading as I was able to find out when, after several hours with updating Apps stuck in waiting mode while I was in WiFi range... they finally decide to begin downloading after I got out and was using my 3G data plan - wasting several dozen MBs of my tiny data plan that is barely enough for my regular use.


Sure... I guess Apple is preparing some new stuff... like automatic updates during the night (would make sense to be doing that when doing the iCloud backup)... But that's no excuse to leave users hanging out with Apps stuck in "waiting" mode. After all, isn't iOS all about "user-friendly" and stuff?

And I won't even go into those dreaded downloading App issues that prompt you to sync from your computer iTunes! I stopped using iTunes the moment iOS 5 came out, and will never want to hear about iTunes again! So... stop prompting me to use it and fix whatever's wrong so that I can download the Apps from the iPhone.

Nor will I let those "phantom Apps" that sometimes briefly prompt error messages regarding "this App and 25 others could not be downloaded"... when it's referring to Apps that I have deleted ages ago, and their Icons reappear... but disappear again once you try clicking on it.

C'mon Apple... these are the kind of bugs no one can forgive from the guys that brought us the "App Store"...

New Apple iPad is Hotter than iPad 2

No doubt the iPad is a "hot" product most people want to have... But if you already had an iPad 2 or original iPad, you might want to know that the new and improved iPad indeed runs hotter than the previous models.

After 5 minutes of running a intensive graphics benchmark program, the new iPad reached 33.6ºC (over 5ºC hotter than the iPad 2 at 28.3ºC).

While this represents an extreme case, and it's still a reasonable temperature to use... I guess how it will handle if you're using it under the sun on a hot summer day. Will it too show the "excessive temperature" warning like the ones some iPhone users got?

Google Preparing a Low Cost Nexus Tablet

It's kind of sad to see that the strongest contender in the Android tablet market is actually one of its own competitors: Amazon's Kindle Fire - which although it's Android based, it's not actually an "Android".

Of course, lots other desirable Android Tablet exist, like the Asus Ttransfomers, but its prices usually put those up against the ever present Apple iPad (which can now be bought for just $399 for last years iPad 2 model).

But Google is now about to make a stand and make it's Android Tablets a lot more interesting, by launching a  7" Nexus Tablet made by Asus.

And what's the difference between this tablet and all others on the market?... Exactly what matters the most... its price. This Nexus Tablet will apparently start at just $149. Well below the $199 price that makes the Kindle Fire so attractive.

It looks like the miraculous Android tablet might arrive in May-June... so, get ready for a hot fight when it comes to 7" Android tablets this Summer.

The Internet in 1981

For younger generations, used to smartphones, the internet, computers and videogames, it might be hard to imagine how things were "back in the day". The days where color computer screens gave way to green phosphor CRT monitors, and the internet... well... it was slightly different than the one we have today (to put it mildly! :)

Watch it and enjoy...

Which iPad to Buy?

The new iPad arrives today (at least for those lucky folks living in one of the select launch countries - lots others will have to wait an extra week) and while people start lining up at the stores, making for the usual media show-off; one question will still be plaguing millions of buyers out there: which Apple iPad should I buy?

That's precisely what we'll be diving into next.


The New iPad or the Old iPad?

Sure, all eyes are gazing the new iPad, but one can't forget that the older iPad 2 - which is still a more than adequate machine - is now available for just $399.
That's a nice 25% less than the cheaper new iPad ($499) and will be appealing to all those wishing for a great tablet on a tight budget.

Of course, if you can spend the extra $100, the new iPad display alone would be more than enough to make you choose this years' model.


So, after you get that out of the way, the question becomes:


WiFi or 4G/LTE?

The 4G/LTE card is unfortunately a touchy subject - as it currently only supports the USA LTE networks. All other countries seem to be left with the slower 3G fallback connection.

In any case, this is something that will ultimately depend on your intended use. If you plan to use it mostly at home or within WiFi range, you won't need to spend an extra $100 for the cellular version.

And there are also other things you can consider:

• The 4G version will (most likely) require you to have yet another mobile data plan
• The WiFi version can still be user anywhere providing you have a smartphone capable of acting as a mobile hotspot, etc.

So, 4G connectivity or using those same $100 extra to double your iPad storage space... that's something only you can tell.


16, 32, or 64GB?

And for the last part... one of the question I get the most: is the 16GB iPad really enough?

Let's start on the opposite side: if money is not a problem, the 64GB iPad is undoubtedly the one that offers the most bang for you buck.

• $499 = 16GB
• $599 = 32GB ($100 gives you 16GB extra)
• $699 = 64GB ($100 gives you 32GB extra)

However, one can't deny that the most appealing factor of the new iPad is that it starts under the $500 barrier - a price most of us would like to hold on to.

So... is that 16GB iPad a good deal?

Unfortunately... I don't think so. At least, not for anyone hoping to use their iPads without constantly worrying about the available free space.

I found out that for myself as I progressed through my iPhones, and I was "forced" to upgrade to a 32GB model because the 16GB simply wasn't enough - and I'm not the kind of people that has gigabytes of musics or videos on it. A few couple of games are enough to goble up a few GB each, as well as navigation apps with offline maps. And even Apple's own Apps like GarageBand easily take up 1GB.

To make it worse, the increased resolution of the new iPad will have a significant impact on App size. Apple's Keynote App grew from 115 to 327MB, Numbers went from 109 to 283MB, Pages from 95 to 269MB, and iMovie from 70 to 404MB.

So... you can see how you 16GB iPad (which will probably have 14GB available or so) can quickly become a little bit short.
(And let's not forget that you can now record FullHD video, which will help feel every available bit of free space even faster - not to mention putting some more gigabytes of musics and HD videos on it. At an average of 3-4GB per HD 1080p movie... you do the math...)

So, at the very least I would strongly suggest you to seriously consider going for the 32GB iPad model at the very least.
Those extra $100 turn out to be roughly $8.3 dolares extra a month, provided you won't want to think about it again for the next 12 months until a new iPad gets out. That's really not that big of a difference, is it?

How EA Ruins the Mass Effect 3 Experience

At last... I got home carrying Mass Effect 3 in my hands for my Xbox 360. Having recently played the previous Mass Effect games back to back, and finding out for myself just how great these scifi epics really are (everything good you might have heard about these games, is well deserved!) this was a moment I was anxiously waiting for.

In the past days I have been "preparing" for ME3, playing Mass Effect Infiltrator and putting up the ME3 Datapad app to good use (although the datapad Apps has incredibly annoying bugs, like the one forcing me to login to EA Origin account every single time I enter the App - and constantly saying that it requires "internet connection" no matter having full strength WiFi broadband internet available).

So, the least I would expect when I inserted Mass Effect 3 disc 1 into my Xbox was that I would be playing ME3 in its full glory within a minute or so... But I was sadly mistaken.


I am a very bitter complainer regarding all DRM and anti-piracy related crap. That's one of the reasons that ultimately led me to nearly abandon PC gaming - after year after year of being treated like a criminal whenever I bought a new game, sometimes even being forced to find "illegal cracks" in order to be able to play my legally acquired games!

There were dozens of games I wished to buy, but refused to do so due to its abusive DRM schemes, and every time I sent an unanswered email to its producers, telling them exactly that. EA was one of my blacklisted companies... but unfortunately I wasn't able to resist Mass Effect.


Having moved my gaming habits to the Xbox and PS3, I though I would be spared of the DRM crap. But the fact is that the gaming experience is being ruined just the same as it was on PCs.

So, I inserted the ME3 disc... and was immediately greeted by a message saying that I have to login to EA Origin network (I would expect the "Live" Xbox experience to be enough for all that and more - but ok, I can even admit that EA needs its own network in order to cross console/PC boundaries).

Next, I'm prompted to enter my activation code! C'mon really?...
In the old days, you could buy a game, play it, lend it, and resell it... Now, you buy a game... but you can't lend it, and any second hand buyer will need to pay for its own activation (even though you're no longer able to play the game because you don't have the discs!) So... why aren't the physical discs "validation" enough?

Most of the time, most people might zip through the activation procedure... But as you might have guessed, that wasn't the case. I entered the code, it got validated and began to download the activation key... but when I tried to play the game, I was greeted with the exact same warning that I needed to activate my game - or pay an extra activation.

I rebooted the Xbox several times, went in and out of the game... and there was no way to play the damn game...

Apparently, the activation key download was left "pending", and I finally had to sort through my download history in order to try to force it and redownload the nasty key. And that finally did it...

So... instead of putting a disc in and playing a game, I spent several excruciatingly long minutes trying to get to play the game I had bought!

But that wasn't the end of it.

Once I wa finally able to enter the game, I obviously chose to import my well known hero, that I created in the first ME game and that went on to play through ME2, and would now be entering ME3.
As you'd might expect, after so many dozens of hours playing with a hero you custom-created, you get to grow fond of it. So... when the import feature greets me with yet another "not able to import your model facial features"... you can't help but feel what sort of quality control they might have these days?

So, instead of playing the game, I was forced into recreating my ME3 hero... with that ever present feeling that it would never be "the same" as it was before. Fortunately, the rest of background info got through... but in any case I was well over 15 minutes since I first inserted the disc in my Xbox... and the free time I had to play the game was actually... over.

ARM unveils Most Efficient 32bits CPU

Nothing could be further from the power-hungry (but powerful) quad-core ARM CPUs you'd expect to find in your new smartphone or tablets. But ARM's new Cortex-M0+, is equally needed and as -or even more- important than its most famous relatives.

Put simply, this is the most efficient 32bit CPU ever made, using roughly a third of the power any other 8 or 16 bit CPU uses (just 9µA/MHz), while providing far more computational power.

You're not likely to find such a CPU powering your smartphone, but this cheap to manufacture (and small: measuring just 1x1mm) will certainly find lot of applications. ARM says it will be a key player in the "internet of things" scenario. A scenario where any/all device, no matter how small - even a simple temperature sensor or light switch, or light bulb - could be connected to the internet, and easily accessible/controllable from any anywhere in the world.

Let's see if that pans out... As I'm sure I wouldn't be the only one wishing that Android@Home thing could really become real, and offer affordable devices that could make our houses smarter and more efficient.

Sony A57 Translucent Mirror Camera

If you're tired of hearing your DSLR mirror clicking and clacking as it drops and raises every time you shoot, maybe it's time your consider switching to a SLT camera. What does SLT stands for? Single Lens Translucent, exactly the kind of technology you can find on the new Sony A57 camera. Instead of a movable mirror, the A57 uses a slightly translucent mirror that allows it to keep snapping photos in high-speed, while the auto-focus system (15 point, 3 sensor AF system) also gets enough information to keep working.

That's the trick that allows it snap precisely focused imagens at up to 12fps, with no mirror bouncing around.

You also get Auto Portrait Framing, that promises to automatically frame your portraits to get better looking photos, as well as a Clear Image Zoom, that Sony claims can provide a 2x digital zoom with no loss in picture quality. A claim that will certainly be put to the test once this camera is out.

As you'd exepect, this 16MP camera also gets FullHD 1080/50p video recording, with full manual/auto controls.
This A57 is expected to land in April, costing $699.99 (body-only), or $799.99 (with an 18-55mm lens kit).

Dangers of Geotagging Photos

With more and more people jumping aboard the smartphone and tablet revolution, some might not even be aware that whenever they snap a photo - it is highly probable that it has embedded the GPS coordinates of your current location on the photo itself.

Most of the time, that may even prove useful. Allowing you see wherever you've been, as well as precisely pinpoint each and every photo - putting the "is this photo here or there?" issues to rest.

But, on the other hand things, things can get messier when you start sharing those pictures online, as the army itself can attest when one base was attacked after enemy forces located it thanks to a geotagged photo.

Even if it's unlikely your photos will mean war, you might want to rethink your strategy about posting your home or even garden photos on social sharing networks - as those will allow anyone to instantly know where you live.

There are "scrubbing" programs that can remove all those extra info that is invisibly stored in your photos - on the so called "EXIF" properties. Or you can even do it in Windows by simply right clicking on it, and going to properties->details->remove all personal info.

Better be safe than sorry.

Feedbruner Socialize Twitter Missing

For anyone using Google's feedburner to send their blog updates to Twitter, you'll certainly be familiarized with its socialize feature that turns that task into something as easy as clicking a few options on your feedburner feed.

However, if you tried doing or editing that these days, you'll probably notice that the feedburner's socialize section is missing!

It used to be available between the FeedCount and Chicklet section on the Publicize tab... but it's nowhere to be seen now.

But fear not... you can easily access the Socialize section (at least for now) by typing it directly on your browsers URL input box.

Just click on the publicize tab, and then edit the "publicize" text in the url to "socialize", so that you get something like:

• http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/socialize?id=XXXXXX

Hope that might help.

SoftKinect has a Time of Flight Camera

Two years ago, people were speculating about how Microsoft futuristic Kinect 3D system (then known only as Project Natal) worked. And my bet was on the highly sofisticated and incredible time-of-flight 3D cameras. Unfortunately, it wasn't the case, and MS opted for a lower cost approach using a IR projection dot pattern to figure out 3D information.

But now, a Belgian company finally turns my dream into reality, and offers a time-of-flight Kinect: the SoftKinect.

The company hope to see its product place in lots of devices, from laptops to smart TVs... and I sincerely hope MS does notices them and makes their next-generation Kinect with this same technology. (I'm just curious about the price of their device, as 2 years ago, time of flight cameras were insanely expensive, although being just silicon, they're more likely to be able to be produced cheaply than a full Kinect assembly with several sensors, projectores, and stuff.)

The New Apple iPad

It wasn't called the iPad 3, nor iPad HD, Apple's new iPad is simply... the new iPad. A change that was bound to come, sooner or later... or does anyone think some years from now we would be using a iPad 14 and a iPhone 26S?

The new iPad brings exactly what most rumors said: we finally have a retina display iPad with an incredible 2048x1536 resolution (think about it... that's about the same resolution of the movies you watch in your digital movie theater, all under your fingertips for a sight that really must be seen live to be appreciated!)

Also related, we get a new A5X CPU, with twice the graphics power (up from a dual-core PowerVR to a quad-core one; although with 4x as many pixels, it seems that we'll have to wait for next years iPad in order to have a GPU that really can push all those megapixels around - maybe with the new PowerVR series).

Other than that, we get 4G/LTE connectivity (two different models, for different US operators - both sporting worlwide 3G at least), and a improved 5MP camera with new optical elements similar to the ones on the iPhone.

If you were waiting to talk to Siri on your iPad, you'll have to keep waiting. The new iPad gets voice dictation, but no Siri - that's a shame.

The new iPad is slightly thicker and heavier, but keeps the same prices as the previous generation, and will be available next week on March the 16th, and worldwide (mostly) the following week (March 23rd) - it's the fastest launch ever!

Also interesting, the "old" iPad 2 will still be around, for a reduced price of $399 - a price that will make life a lot harder for any competing tablet that was betting on its low price to be considered an "alternative" to the more expensive iPad. That advantage is now largely gone...

So... will you be lining up to get the new iPad, or will you give it another year for developers to get used to the retina display resolution, and for Apple to jump to a quad-core and even better GPU?

Google Play Unifies Android Market, Music, Video and Books

A bold, but ultimately necessary, big change in Google's offerings: the Android Market is dead, and has now been replaced by the much broader Google Play.

A Google play where you can play your content no matter where you are (web, Android mobile devices, soon on the TV as well I presume); and that unifies Google Music, Videos and books with the Android Market for an all-in-one unified shopping/consuming experience.

So, don't stress when you find that your Apps have suddenly transformed:

• Android Market now becomes Play Store
• Google Music becomes Play Music
• Video App becomes Play Movies
• And Google Books becomes Play Books

Unfortunately, much of these changes still leave out the majority of the world. Other than the US, UK, Canada, Australia and Japan, all other countries get nothing but the usual access to Apps.

• US: Apps, Movies, Books, Music
• UK & Canada: Apps, Movies, Books
• Australia: Apps & Books
• Japan: Apps & Movies
• Others: Apps

... Let's hope this serves as yet another warning that copyrights really need to be revamped from the ground up in order to be compatible with the new world we live in, and where it makes no sense to leave billions of people "out".

Be sure to check out the new Google Play and keep your eyes on the upcoming daily promos during the next days.

iPad 3 Parts Reveal Final Look?

We're a bit more than a day away from Apple's new iPad 3 (or iPad HD), which many expect to announce the next logical step in the tablet revolution, with a retina display that will greatly increase its graphic quality - just like the iPhone 4 did back in its day.

With rumors increasing by the minute, some alleged iPad 3 parts have made their way into some sites, and give us some clues about what's to come.

As expected there won't be any major change to the iPad look. In fact, you probably won't be able to tell one from the other. There's a slightly bigger camera orifice (let's see if it will have the 8MP iPhone 4S camera), and also some very slight changes to its thickness and tapered edeges, to make a little more room inside. If we get the expected high-resolution retina display, as well as improved CPU/GPU power, and 4G/LTE connectivity, every bit of extra space for a larger battery will be needed.

But... we'll know tomorrow.

Microsoft IllumiShare Allows Remote Physical Sharing

It's no secret Microsoft has a lot of interesting projects going on at their Research Labs, and this IllumiShare is but one of them.

However, unlike the ones that are far from becoming real products, this one is so simple that it makes us wonder why no one had thought of it before. It's basically a simple camera+projector combo, that is housed in a simple desk lamp housing, and it allows people to share a real physical desktop space remotely.

This means you can see and interact with people using real physical objects. You can help someone do their homework; or play card games or tic-tac-toe. But, most important of all... is trying to imagine just what else you could use it for!

One things for sure... our future is bound to become a lot more shareable, not only in the virtual digital world, but in the real physical one as well.



[MS Next via The Verge]

Naked Man in Car Trunk in Streetview

One can never expect what to find when it starts strolling around Google Maps Streeview... But in Germany one such odd case has been causing quite a stir: an image shows an apparently naked man inside a car trunk (in a convertible, which would make it even less roomier than you'd might expect. :)

Google has quickly pulled the image, but the buzz will never stop to spread across the internet. What would the man be doing, stuck in a car trunk next to a dog sleeping on the floor?

My take is that he's probably wearing shorts and simply cleaning up his car trunk - or messing around with the cabriolet retractable roof system. A simple explanation that wouldn't please anyone hoping for a more sordid/adventurous explanation - like that trunk beeing a time portal into another dimension - but... take your pick. Any guess is as good as mine... :)

Asus Transformer Infinity gets FullHD Screen

As expected, ASUS didn't wait long to update its Transformer line of Android tablets. And right on the heels of the recent Transformer Prime, here's the new Transformer Infinity.

Asus learned from its mistakes on the Prime, with its all metal case - which affected its WiFi/GPS sensibility - and now added a plastic strip on the Infinity that should take care of that. But, the real plus on this new model will be its higher resolution Super IPS+ LCD screen, with 1920x1200 pixels (more than FullHD).

As for the CPU, Asus will be using the same quad-core Tegra 3 for the WiFi models, but for the 4G/LTE Infinity, it will be using a 1.5Ghz Qualcomm MSM 8960 Snapdragon S4 dual-core (apparently, there are some issues pairing the Tegra 3 with the 4G/LTE chipsets, and that forced Asus to resort to a different CPU to save time).

There's no doubt about it... 2012 will be of the "High-density" Tablets. :)

iPhone iOS March 1 Bug?

Looks like Microsoft isn't the only one having to deal with date issues (their Azure cloud was brought done by a date issue related to the Feb 29th date). Now... on March 2nd, I wake up to find my iPhone Calendar App "stuck" on March the 1st!

This was really weird, as entering the calendar showed the correct highlighted date of March 2nd.

Something that was confirmed by looking at the date on the lock screen.

I tried killing the calendar App, but nothing made any difference. So, after a while I reluctantly tried the technique I wouldn't expect I'd have to use on a iOS device... shutdown and reboot.

And there it was, back to its working glory.

A quick survey on my twitter timeline showed this wasn't a general issue (most of my friends said their iPhones showed the correct date) - but at least one other person suffered from the same stuck date on March 1st.

What about your iPhone/iPad? Did it get stuck on March 1 as well?

Hologram Exhibition at Fantasporto 2012

Once again Porto hosts the International Film Festival Fantasporto (the 32nd edition) and as usually, it brings more than just movies to the Rivoli Theater. This time, everyone is invited to come visit a rare hologram exhibition that you won't easily find elsewhere.

There are dozens of holograms, some more impressive than others, ranging from simple geometric patterns to photos of people - including the portuguese former president Jorge Sampaio, perfectly captured in 3D.

But if you think this holo-portrait is cool, just wait until you see what I've saved for last.





Unlike the 3D effect on movies, where you're just watching a pseudo-3D image that tries to trick your brain (things might look like they're popping out of the screen, but your eyes still need to be focused on the screen itself - which is what induces nausea and that "weird feeling" effect some people feel), with holograms you're really looking into a real 3D image that you can move around and focus on near/far objects.

 [a window to a whole new world]

I though I had seen it all when it comes to holograms... But I was in for a big surprise. This one makes the visit worthwhile by itself.

Unlike the others, this one offers a view into a laboratory scene, where you can watch not only the object placed near the "window", but well into the background... 6 or 7 meters worth of hologram depth! You can even duck to watch things well above near the ceiling.

And, if this wasn't awesome enough, there's a mirror placed nearby that allows you to see the 3D reflection of the objects on the hologram! That's the sort of thing that is enough to make your jaw drop to the floor.

Just see it for yourself... although not in its full - and real 3D - glory.