December 2011
64 posts
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Visual heat maps are back, this time to compare...
Earlier this month eye-tracking research company EyeTrackShop did a study on recorded eye movements on social profiles and the order of the eye movements were visualized with heat maps matching up to the corresponding social network showing exactly where people focus in on the most. Since the last study, some things have changed. Facebook officially and globally released the Timeline profile,...
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I bet Steve Jobs never imagined this demographic...
When the late Steve Jobs helped create the iPad, surely he was thinking that it will be for men, women and children. Heck, even babies have gotten in on the action, who aren’t fooled by cheap tricks. But did Steve Jobs imagine this? How about the animal kingdom getting in on some of this iPad mania? Yeah, even bearded dragons appear to enjoy the realness of the iPad. Which if you watch...
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Help videos become viral with YouTube Slam
YouTube recently just launched a new experimental project called YouTube Slam. The project was taken on by the Google Research team as a way to try to discover the next great artist on YouTube with machine learning. Forty-eight hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute (that’s eight years of content every day). Sifting through videos manually, humanly, would be impossible in a hunt to...
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WonderLand is a beautiful series of macro photos...
Nadav Bagim aka Aimish Boy is a photographer in Israel that has been able to create a virtual WonderLand in his macro photos using small models (bugs and insects), household objects and elegant artificial lighting. The end result are magnificent photos that appear to be out of this world. The photos are shot using a Canon EOS 60D Camera, a Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro lens and Flashes, which are real...
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A tale of horrible customer service and a PR...
Last night I was reading about a momentous epic fail by a company that screwed over it’s customers and tried to flaunt it in their face. The company is Ocean Marketing, who does third-party peripheral marketing, in this particular situation, gaming controllers. The backstory is that a customer named Dave ordered some controllers in November for Christmas from Ocean Marketing. With no...
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Google Music, iTunes and Spotify get their own...
It’s been a big year for Propaganda posters. Back in November I blogged about the posters Aaron Wood did for social networks, which were quite popular. Then he kept at it and added more to his repertoire of posters for Android, Apple and the like.
Now Woods is back, with more posters. This time, he must have realized that he totally has missed out on the social music craze, and added...
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The plot thickens with the SOPA conspiracy
Holy smokes, can this be true? Quite possibly so. There is a video out by Jeepers Media and Mike Mozart that totally changes everything about SOPA. Not only was SOPA bad before, but these new allegations make SOPA very evil. In the Jeepers video, Mike Mozart presents a boat load of evidence and information that CNET, ZDNet and Download.com all distributed the file sharing tools like Kazaa,...
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LuminAID is helping bring light to areas such as...
LuminAID is solar-rechargeable, inflatable light that packs flat and inflates to create a lightweight, waterproof lantern. It’s portable and can be used anywhere in the world in areas such as disaster zones that has no working or available electricity. It’s about the size of and weight of an iPhone and it’s inexpensive solution to a big problem in areas that need light. ...
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In 2011, Social Networks were big revenue earners
Each year social networking becomes more and more mainstream and popular as sites like Facebook become a household name. Facebook has over 800 million users, close to 1 billion. Once they hit 1 billion, 1 out of every 7 people in the world will be on Facebook. I originally projected over a year ago that Facebook would hit 1 billion users towards the end of 2011. I was wrong, more than likely...
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The most popular holiday gifts in the past 30...
Now that Christmas has past, the rush to buy the most wanted gifts of the year are over. As such, some of you big babies didn’t get what you wanted ;) The one item that people bitched about the most that they didn’t get was the iPhone 4S, which surprisingly is not on the infographic of the most popular gifts by year, for the past 30 years by Ultimate Coupon.
For 2011, the iPad2 was...
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Apparently, not everyone got what they wanted for...
I hope that everyone enjoyed the Christmas holiday and spent time with their families, friends and loved ones. Christmas is a time to embrace each other and reflect on the year and celebrate. For those that celebrate it religiously, it’s a spiritual celebration of Jesus Christ, hence the name Christmas (Christ’s mass). The point being, it’s not primarily about getting...
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Stats show leisurely tablet use is on the rise
Mobile tablets like the iPad have made content discovery easy and convenient which in part is helping drive their popularity. Laptops are still resourceful and necessary when it comes to writing documents and for more robust and dynamic professional work. Stats published by Google indicate an interesting character trait of tablet use which also supports this information.
Tablet use has become...
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48 organizations that are against SOPA
SOPA has attracted a lot of negativity recently, rightfully so of course. Most recently the 142 organizations that support SOPA which has sparked outrage and people boycotting these organizations. In the same token, putting aside the negativity just for a second, let’s take a moment to praise the organizations that are publicly NOT supporting SOPA.
This list of 48 organizations was put...
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Create your own Star Wars snowflakes in just a few...
Get in the holiday spirit with some really cool Star Wars snowflakes. These are DIY by Matters of Grey, and fairly easy to do to for an awesome activity and to have some Star Wars fun.
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The Top 10 most popular games on Facebook in 2011
With 2011 coming to a close, Facebook posted the Top 10 most popular games on the most popular social network. To make the cut, the games had to have more than 100,000 monthly active users and priority was given to those games with the highest user satisfaction scores.
The average game player on Facebook plays three or more different games each month and played more than half the days they...
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Hitler reacts to SOPA
The news of SOPA has traveled quickly, and even Hitler has found out about it. SOPA is even more evil than Hitler himself, so as you can imagine, he is not happy about it. If you’re not happy about it, maybe you should boycott one of these SOPA-supporting orgs. Many have started already, including boycotting GoDaddy.
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U is for Unicorn, the most wild creature ever born
Unicorns, Turtles, Yetis and other monsters are the premise for The Monster Alphabet which is a new children’s book by Darren J. Gendron and illustrated by Obsidian Abnormal. The book takes the traditional “A is for Apple” style and turns it into a full on learning experience with a new monster for each letter.
Each amazing illustration is accompanied by an Iambic Pentameter...
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Here's the official list of 142 organizations that...
I was reading a thread earlier on Reddit where some users had a great idea. Why not boycott the supporters of SOPA? Right now, whether SOPA gets passed or not is out of our hands and in the hands of lawmakers in Congress.
You can make a difference, if you have not yet — you can Help Save the Internet. After doing that, there isn’t much else to do, or is there?
I think this idea of...
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Does this virtual keyboard have the magic touch?
The Magic Cube by Celluon is a mobile device that can project lasers on any opaque surface to create a virtual keyboard. It also doubles as a mouse. The keyboard looks really cool and futuristic, something out of Star Trek however, I have my doubts. I don’t doubt that it works, I doubt it’s usability. In the video it even says that there is a learning curve, where some users start...
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Microsoft's "Homework 2.0" TV commercial
I saw this TV commercial yesterday and had to find the YouTube video. It’s by Microsoft and it’s about a Dad and his son who swap each other’s computers (Windows 7 naturally) so the Dad can help his son with his homework. Except, his son ends up helping his Dad with his instead. It’s a cute ad that is definitely a sign of the times.
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Hackers are creating workarounds just in case SOPA...
Internet censorship in the U.S. is still a real fear and possibility as the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is still under consideration. The House Judiciary Committee was supposed to make a decision on it last week, then decided to post-pone until after winter break and reconvene in January citing they need more technical expert opinions before they can come to a vote. That is good news.
Then...
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Night time image shows the poverty of North Korea...
Yesterday, it was announced by the North Korean government that the Supreme Leader (dictator) Kim Jong-il had died from a heart attack while riding a train to an area outside Pyongyang, North Korea. One thing about his dictatorship that I didn’t fully grasp until I saw this satellite image was that Kim Jong-il kept North Korea in extreme poverty. By looking at the image below which was...
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Pandas playing in snow is the cutest thing ever!
Two giant pandas in China are captured on video having loads of fun in the winter holiday weather as they tumble around in the snow. There is nothing like a cute pandas to warm your heart! The two giant pandas are located in the Wolong Nature Reserve in Sichuan province.
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Myspace finally makes a change and launches...
Back in June of this year, Myspace was sold to Specific Media to get Myspace off the NewsCorp financial books and also as a last ditch effort to breathe fresh air to a social network that had fallen to the perils of other platforms such as of Facebook and Twitter.
The alternative would have been to shut down Myspace for good, so for users there was a glimmer of hope after the sale that the new...
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Top three holiday gadgets for students
For this holiday season, heading back to classes won’t involve lugging a heavy book bag from one end of the campus to the other. More and more, going to school means hooking up to the Internet from the dorm or a spare room. Learning through online classes is changing more than education — it’s changing the shopping lists for gifts going under the trees of college students. Here are three top...
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Robots controlling humans, a glimpse into the...
Something that society has grown more accustomed to when it comes to technological breakthroughs are man’s abilities to control things, such as machines or even robots. What if the roles were reversed, and man was controlled by machines? Sounds like something out of a movie, right? Well, this role reversal may not be that far off. A French research team from Montpellier Laboratory of...
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Even Santa is taking advantage of Siri's voice...
Siri is really popular these days, so it’s no big surprise that even Santa Clause is getting in on the action. Apple’s new ad featuring the jolly Kris Kringle shows that even Santa can use a little help spreading happiness and gifts all over the world.
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The most reliable blogging platforms of 2011
Each year Royal Pingdom does a review of the stability of blogging platforms for that year. For 2011, they reviewed five blogging platforms: Blogger, WordPress, Typepad, Tumblr and Posterous. Royal Pingdom monitored these platforms for performance and availability from January through November. The results are in. Google’s Blogger platform had the best stability results with only having...
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A stunning point of view from atop of the new...
The World Trade Center is being rebuilt, and as it is, it’s progress is being tracked. Some new pictures from the new World Trade Center were posted to the WTC official Twitter account which show just an amazing view of New York City, 71 floors up. The new World Trade Center will be in total 1,776 feet tall, which will be the tallest skyscraper in New York. via Buzzfeed
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The Top Google searches of 2011
This year for Google Search is pretty interesting. From the newest gadgets to shocking news events, Google breaks down the billions of searches in 2011 and puts it all together for us. Of the Top 10 searches of the year, each one is broken down into detail by Google in the Zeitgeist 2011: How the World Searched.
I think out of the Top 10, two are most surprising to me which are: Adele and...
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The Holidays
Despite the country’s shaky economy, this year’s Black Friday sales were a blowout: there were more shoppers online and in stores than ever before. Because of this increase, experts predict that the remainder of the holiday season will continue to put retailers in the black. But to keep up with the rush of sales, online retailers may need to temporarily increase their order...
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The Toy Kindergarten gives schools a playful and...
The concept of this kindergarten school is somewhat simple. Kids love colorful toys. Kids go to school. Combine the both and architect Jure Kotnik came up with a beautiful structure for children to help make going to class interesting and fun.
The Toy Kindergarten is a new facade to a school structure that adds natural wood slates over the sides of the building. The slates can be adjusted to...
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The Top 15 YouTube videos of 2011
There were a lot of popular videos this year, many that spawned huge Internet memes. From the horrible Pepper Spraying UC Davis cop to cute babies, 2011 spared no punches. As we did last year when we rounded up the Top 15 Videos of 2010, here are the Top 15 of 2011. 15: Crime Cops posted Jan 30, 2011 - 1,869,532 views 14: Super Mario Theme - Sungha Jung (Ukulele) posted Aug 20, 2011 -...
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What Google will look like if SOPA passes
Today is the day. The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) or as I like to refer to it as, the Internet Censorship bill is being voted on and we should know if it gets passed or not. There isn’t much more that can be done at this moment other than to wait. In the interim, we should ponder, what would the Internet look like if SOPA was passed? Here is one interpretation that really hits home. If...
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New touch technology will let you feel the...
I am constantly being impressed with new technology and Senseg is no exception. They are another type of new technology that will allow you to ‘feel’ the screen you are touching, for tablet and smart device usage.
Imagine you are using an iPad app and you need to know the texture of the paper on the screen for example, with Senseg you would be able to feel the surface texture,...
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Colrd is an endless resource for background images
I just discovered an amazing website that has an endless supply of background images for use with public licenses, as well as other types of Creative Commons licenses for use.
The site is called Colrd, which just launched this past summer. It’s a user generated site for web designers and the like that need quality background images for web design. They also offer a few powerful tools to...
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In protest of SOPA, Wikipedia may censor entire...
SOPA the Internet censorship bill veiled as an anti-piracy bill is at a critical stage. The House Judiciary Committee is probably going to make a decision this week on whether to pass it or not. If passed, it could have huge ramifications for anyone that publishes content across the web, including vloggers, bloggers and every day people that share things socially on Facebook, Twitter and...
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A life size Pin Art wall-shelf makes cleaning up...
Anybody that has kids knows it’s hard to get them to clean up their toys, books, what have you. But adding a fun element in the form of a self-absorbing shelf would make any kid smile. The shelf, called the Pin Press is modeled after the famous Pin Art toys and does just what the Pin Art toys do; you push in the pins to make space for things to place into it. Or just for giggles, you can...
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Kinect hack brings a new kind of mirror to your...
Using Microsoft’s Kinect motion detection technology, the NY Times research group hacked together a Magic Mirror of sorts. The mirror, using Kinect is able to read physical cues and provide information right to the person on the mirror.
It can also read information using RFID data, such as a bar code to pull up and display relevant information. As used in the demo provided by Nieman Labs,...
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Time Lapse: Traffic in Ho Chi Minh City
If you thought your commute in traffic was bad, well get ready for an awakening. This time lapse video was taken in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam by Rob Whitworth who does a fantastic job of capturing the hurried craziness of the city.
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Unbelievable street art from around the world
Street Art is a popular form of underground expression, that’s one of the reasons I love it so much. It’s raw and oversteps boundaries that not every artist is willing to take, so there is a level of risk and badassery that goes with it. Some places such as Bogota, Columbia welcome street art, but most places don’t. Here are ten examples of well done pieces from all over the...
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The Top 10 posts of 2011
This year has been quite a busy year. There has been a lot of great stories out there such innovative technology, interesting artistic pieces of expression and very important political issues. Here are the Top 10 most popular posts this year. I only hope in 2012, it will continue to be a great year. Enjoy. 10 - Apple releases the private Steve Jobs memorial service video A sad point in the...
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The Tascam iOS microphone is a beast
If you are in the sound recording industry of any magnitude, let me introduce you to this beastly looking thing, which looks like a bazooka hanging off the end of an iPhone. It’s called the TASCAM’s iM2 microphone and it attaches onto your iOS devices and turns it into a high-quality stereo recorder. The mic can swivel 180 degrees for best sound placement and can handle up to 125dB...
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GTA III: 10 Yr Anniversary Edition is coming to...
In very cool news, a game that many have been playing for ten years now is finally coming to iOS and Android mobile devices. Grand Theft Auto III has a 10 Year Anniversary Edition which should be available next week on December 15th for $4.99. Check the App Store and Android Market then to get it.
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Check out this giant sized working Rubik’s Cube...
Any Rubik’s Cube fan young or old should enjoy this. It’s a giant sized Rubik’s Cube made into a drawer that actually spins. You can take apart the pieces to try to solve the age old puzzle of Rubik’s Cube and while your at it, store some stuff in the drawer. For a complete list of instructions to make your own, read here.
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Sec. of State Hillary Clinton: Internet Freedom is...
Yesterday at the Conference on Internet Freedom in the Netherlands, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered what I think to be an extremely powerful, clear, well spoken speech on Internet Freedom. It boils down to Internet accessibility and free speech being a human right to every person and not just to some. There is no place for Internet oppression, where dictators can oppress people by...
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In addition to redesign, Twitter launches Brand...
Today is a big day for Twitter. Earlier they officially launched the newest version of Twitter yet, really pushing the envelope in modern web design and content discovery. As part of the new redesign, Twitter also has a new Brand Page program. According to Adage, Twitter has spent the better part of the past year discussing and developing brand pages. The new brand pages are slightly...
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Twitter unveils new redesign to further push...
Twitter has updated thier design once again. I guess you can call it the New New Twitter (#newnewtwitter). Initially in October when the redesign was leaked, I wasn’t a very big fan of it. It just didn’t make a lot of sense, but you have to take leaks with a grain of salt as they are an unfinished product and don’t tell the whole story.
Well today, Twitter unveiled their new...
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If Angry Birds were made into a movie, this is how...
First of all, I loved the movie Snatch. Not everyone liked it, but I did, it’s good. If you haven’t seen it, you should. So the premise here is Angry Birds is made into a movie, with the likeness of the movie Snatch. If this Angry Birds movie was ever made, it would be epic. There really isn’t much to say other than it would be a must see. via Buzzfeed
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AT&T has begun throttling data usage among top 5%...
Back in November, I received a text SMS message from AT&T that said “Your data usage is approaching the top 5% of users. Use Wi-Fi to help avoid reduced speed for this bill cycle.” At the time, I figured it was a bit of an open-ended threat from AT&T that was supposed to encourage users to use Wi-Fi instead of their bandwidth, as we all know it costs AT&T money to supply...
