|
June 25, 2007 | Taken from
context by
Scott McAndrew
Live from Red Bull Flugtag Tennesee 2007
Red Bull's infamous Flying Day takes over Nashville! Check out the Flugtag Pictures!
Visit the Red Bull Flugtag USA web sIte!
|
|
June 11, 2007 | Taken from
context by
Scott McAndrew
Parallels, Vista, and BootCamp - Hooray!
An update to Parallels Desktop for Mac, a software solution that allows running other operating systems on one's Macintosh in virtual machines was released last week. The latest release, version 3.0, allows for one key thing that I was hoping to see—the utilization of an Apple BootCamp Vista partition as the Parallels image. Beyond my now realized wish, there are several other new features in this release including:
- The ability to set a default program to open files in OS X or Windows based upon the file's extension
- Hardware accelerated 3D graphics (hmmm... we'll see how that works out...)
- The ability to access Windows systems without launching Windows
While the last updates to Parallels were free, this update costs $49.99 for existing users. If it was free, I'd be reviewing it as we speak. At $49.99, I'm again rethinking how much I use Windows on my Mac and if the fifty bucks is worth it for the new features.
Apple also released its latest version of BootCamp Beta. Notable in this release (version 1.3):
- Updated graphics drivers
- Keyboard backlighting support (for MacBook Pro laptops only)
- An improved driver installer
BootCamp Beta is a free download from Apple.
|
|
June 08, 2007 | Taken from
Koded Kreations by
Justin Copeland
Microsoft Surface
 A few hours ago, Microsoft announced a new product called Surface and I am amazed at its capabilities. Basically it is a interactive table top that in the demo videos had me in awe. By the touch of a finger to its interactive display, users are able to map out routes on a map by just touching the places they want to travel to. They are able to look at photos and movies but simply touching them and dragging them around the screen. They can even be resized.
But the best feature I saw was its ability to interact with other devices and items placed on its surface. Someone could set his/her camera down on the screen and it know what it was and showed thumbnail images from the camera that could be saved onto the Surface or dragged into a phone or other portable storage device. They also had an example of two people placing their Zunes (it's Microsoft remember) onto the Surface and they were given the ability to share songs with each other simply by dragging the songs over from one Zune to the other.
 Another favorite feature was one that I would really love to use. The example had the Surface set up at a restaurant and the menu was interactive so you could order anything you wanted whenever you wanted just by the touch of your finger. Also interesting was when a drink is placed on the Surface, it recognizes that and circles the drink and gives little messages such as "Getting Thirsty?". Cute and people will love it. But the part that got me was that users are able to place their credit/debit cards on the table and drag what they want to pay for on each card and have that taken care of for them without the hassle of having to give the waiter 4 different cards.
The Surface's ability to know what is placed onto its surface is amazing and I would love to see one of these in person. According to the web site, it will be available this Winter. I see a lot of uses for this and think that this is one of the best ideas that Microsoft has introduced in quite a long time. I personally see this is something that will become a part of daily live much like the iPod's have today.
|
|
June 05, 2007 | Taken from
context by
Scott McAndrew
Facebook Application: stuffCLOUD
One of the applications Terralever created for the Facebook Platform launch as a proof of concept is stuffCLOUD.
If you're a Facebooker and want to give it a try, you can go to the Application Directory (http://www.facebook.com/apps/), click on "Just for Fun" in the right-hand column, and then page through the listings to find stuffCLOUD (you can read about it and install it if you like from there). In it's current release state, it definitely is FAR more fun when a few of your friends have it installed also (in fact, the more of your friends that install it, the more interesting it is).
We are currently in the process of adding a few new features that were requested by some users.
- The default view on a user's profile page will show how popular the things in your cloud are in relation to the entire Facebook universe (not just your friends). In the short term, if you add the application, you'll want a friend or two to add it also.
- The streamer view will be upgraded-it isn't our immediate priority, but we will be adding some cool functionality so that you can add tags to your stuffCLOUD right from the stuffSTREAMER.
- Notifications that are more fun (this is the lowest on the priority list, but we definitely want to get there).
There are still bandwidth and timeout issues intermittently with Facebook. As things stabilize, we're continuing to improve stuffCLOUD!
Let me know what you think!
|