Life In A Day Project - Google & Ridley Scott Team Up

Sadly I missed this project some how... It seams as though Google (YouTube), Ridley Scott, Kevin Macdonald, LG, the Sundance Film Festival have teamed up in an open project that's aim was to document what life was like on earth on July 24, 2010. The Life In A Day project asked for submissions of video captured on July 24th from anyone interested. The work will be compiled and edited over the next several months and the documentary screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 2011. It's not too late however to submit your video, if you captured any yesterday, as the project is accepting submissions until July 31st.

Flipboard, What Your iPad Was Made For

Yesterday a new app hit the iTunes app store and because it was showing up in a bunch of twitter posts ("Exclusive first look at Flipboard: http://scobleizer.com/Revolutionary social news app for iPad." @Scobleizer) I downloaded it to see what all of the fuss was about. It would seem that every other iPad owner on the face of the planet was also downloading Flipboard and trying to connect it to their social network as well. The app store held up to it's end of the bargain but Flipboard itself was a little overwhelmed by all of the attention and I was unable to connect it to my Facebook or Twitter accounts. None the less this is the killer iPad app! There, I said it too... Flipboard turns your iPad into a rich media experience. You have to try it to understand but the app maker has done a great job of explaining and demonstrating it via this video:

I now officially love my iPad!

Google Upgrades Image Search

After 9 years, Google image search has grown from 250 million indexed images to 10 billion and counting. I guess it was due for an upgrade, particularly with rivals such as bing forcing their hand. The Official Google Blog describes the features that have lived on since it's inception and introduces a number of recent upgrades that will assist us in finding that perfect awe inspiring image. 

Here is what you'll see in the updated version of images being rolled out over the next few days:

• Dense tiled layout designed to make it easy to look at lots of images at once. We want to get the app out of the way so you can find what you’re really looking for.
• Instant scrolling between pages, without letting you get lost in the images. You can now get up to 1,000 images, all in one scrolling page. And we’ll show small, unobtrusive page numbers so you don’t lose track of where you are.
• Larger thumbnail previews on the results page, designed for modern browsers and high-res screens.
• A hover pane that appears when you mouse over a given thumbnail image, giving you a larger preview, more info about the image and other image-specific features such as “Similar images.”
• Once you click on an image, you’re taken to a new landing page that displays a large image in context, with the website it’s hosted on visible right behind it. Click anywhere outside the image, and you’re right in the original page where you can learn more about the source and context.
• Optimized keyboard navigation for faster scrolling through many pages, taking advantage of standard web keyboard shortcuts such as Page Up / Page Down. It’s all about getting you to the info you need quickly, so you can get on with actually building that treehouse or buying those flowers

Double Rainbow...

Isn't it funny how one video will go viral while another just sits waiting to be discovered? The double rainbow phenomena is sweeping the internet thanks to Paul Vasquez, aka "Hungry Bear," who spent an hour marveling at the beauty of a "double rainbow" that he spotted and video taped the experience. All it took was for one simple tweet, from late night host Jimmy Kimmel on July 4th and a new internet meme was born. Hungry Bear found himself the subject of interest by media and a lot of people with a bunch of time on their hands. Vasquez's double rainbow video attracted ~5 million views and a spun off a number of parodies such as the double rainbow song:

My double rainbow is yet to be discovered though, I guess 23 seconds of video sans the oohs and the "what does it mean?" does not a meme make. ;)

Source: CNN

BC Lottery's Online Casino Overwhelmed On Day One

With British Columbia's population spending $100-million on online gambling websites every year, the government decided to build it's own "legal" site and keep the money at home where it could be used for "health care, higher education and improved infrastructure." The government did not however anticipate the overwhelming interest that there was in a home grown site and was forced to shut it down for several hours for maintenance. 


While typing this I attempted to view the site and was met with the following:

PlayNow.com is Currently Unavailable

We are experiencing technical difficulties and will have the matter corrected shortly.

We regret any inconvenience this may cause you.

If you require more assistance, please contact Consumer Services at consumerservices@bclc.com or 1-866-815-0222.

Thank you for your patience.

PlayNow.com is reportedly North America's only government sanctioned online gambling site, though I think that is open to interpretation. I fully expect that I would have been blocked from attempting to play on the site as I reside outside of the province.  

GigaOM's Summer Reading List

If you are looking for a good book to thumb through or to load up on the Kindle for summer vacation, the team at GigaOM has compiled a list of their favorites for our consideration. With all bases covered, from Facebook to discussing the myths and realities of the energy debate, sci-fi and the movies... the list runs the gambit. There is likely to be something here that tweaks every geek's interest, but if not I'd like to add Power Friending by Amber Mac to the list. If Social Media is your thing, or if you are just trying to figure out where it fits in your life and/or business, this is a very good read by someone who lives this stuff! Check it out!

Apple Calls Surprise Press Conference 15/07/2010

While they won't say what the topic will be, Apple has called a surprise press conference for today and much speculation is they'll be addressing the iPhone 4 antenna issue. Maybe Steve Jobs will give a personal "how to hold the iPhone 4" demonstration or perhaps they'll simply introduce the illusive white version :)

In any case the public is getting their "knickers in a knot" over this, deservedly or not, and Apple has to do some damage control. Some industry analysts however believe that this is the chink in Apple's armor that competitors have been waiting for and the hype is being inflated in an attempt to discredit the Apple name. 

"Apple is probably one of the most important brands of the last 50 years," said Olivier Blanchard, president of Brand Builder Marketing.

"They are rock stars in that sense and I believe that this fiasco with the iPhone 4 is an excuse to attack a company that is becoming such a giant. Five years ago when they were the underdog this would have been a non issue," Mr Blanchard told BBC News. (I suspect he was wearing his "I <3 Steve" boxers at the time.)

eBay Target of $3.8-billion Patent Infringement Suit

The Globe and Mail is reporting that eBay is the target of a $3.8-billion law suit filed Tuesday in Delaware by XPRT Ventures LLC, who cited six patents that they felt eBay had infringed upon in the development of Paypal Pay Later and PayPal Buyer Credit.

In the complaint "XPRT said that when eBay on April 30, 2003 filed a patent application titled “Method and System to Automate Payment for a Commerce Transaction,” it failed to tell the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office it knew of XPRT’s own patent applications." XPRT says information was shared in confidence with eBay by the inventors on XPRT’s own patents.

"XPRT is seeking a minimum $3.8 billion in monetary damages, based on their estimated present value. It is also seeking treble damages resulting from eBay’s alleged “willful and malicious conduct,” punitive damages, and other remedies."

Consumer Reports Says No To iPhone 4

Influential publication, Consumer Reports, says that it can't give the iPhone 4 a recommendation because of the faulty antenna issue. "When your finger or hand touches a spot on the phone's lower left side — an easy thing, especially for lefties — the signal can significantly degrade enough to cause you to lose your connection altogether if you're in an area with a weak signal. Due to this problem, we can't recommend the iPhone 4."

Consumer Reports says that it consistently reproduced the issue on 3 separate iPhone 4 test devices and that it had also tried unsuccessfully to replicate the issue on older iPhone models, the Palm Pre, and other AT&T devices.

"Our findings call into question the recent claim by Apple that the iPhone 4's signal-strength issues were largely an optical illusion caused by faulty software that 'mistakenly displays two more bars than it should for a given signal strength,'" the site said. "The tests also indicate that AT&T's network might not be the primary suspect in the iPhone 4's much-reported signal woes."

Hmmmm! So much for the "all phones suffer from this" defense! Maybe Apple is not perfect after all?

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/07/12/consumer-reports-apple-iphone.html?ref=rss#ixzz0tYgereYk

Roll Your Own Android Apps

Google is taking the wraps off of a new android development tool aimed at the masses and setting Google App Inventor for Android free. The tool has been under development for a year and tested by users with little or no formal technical knowledge, "User testing has been done mainly in schools with groups that included sixth graders, high school girls, nursing students and university undergraduates who are not computer science majors." 


"App Inventor requires NO programming knowledge. This is because instead of writing code, you visually design the way the app looks and use blocks to specify the app's behavior." says the company's About page.


I think I know what I'll be doing this evening!