Google Fiber: Thank You, Kansas City

Doubly excited for my hometown! Google Fiber "arrives" July 26.

Introducing the Leap

Now this is cool. Leap is a control interface for laptops and desktops. With the wave of your hand you can move a map, skip a song or change file directories. Add a pencil to the mix and now you have a stylus with which you can draw or even sign your name. If you have heard of Microsoft's Kinect for Xbox, this is essentially the same thing except far more sensitive and geared for all-purpose computing instead of just gaming.

How to turn a cassette tape into MP3s | How To - CNET

My how the pace of technology makes age ever more prevalent. Older Millennials (yes, just the older ones), might recall cassette tapes. Heck, some of you might even have a few still lying around. I know I've got Right Said Fred sitting around somewhere along with some recording of my favorite songs as they played on the radio.

While Spotify and others do a fine job of letting me listen to that music today, there could still be some bootleg, remix or live show that you couldn't get anywhere else.

Here is a method for getting those tapes into digital form. It isn't easy but it is free.

How to turn a cassette tape into MP3s | How To - CNET

What Google's Project Glass will really look like.

Turn your commute into a game with Waze!

UPDATE: After acquiring Waze, Google is now integrating traffic reports, generated from the Waze app's users, into the Google Maps app. Still no signs of closing down Waze itself as there is no way to report incidents from Google's own app.

Google Maps Gets Waze Real-Time Traffic Reports | PC Mag http://bit.ly/14yvehz


Your commute is probably boring and leaves you feeling unproductive. What if you could score points and compete with your friends just by driving? Waze aims to do just that and more. Waze, in the most basic sense, is a free turn by turn navigation service for iPhone, Android and Windows Phone. Two really great features give it a big leg up over the other options. First, it is a game where you get points for driving and finding road goodies. Second, it is a social navigation app. When you are playing the game, you are actually providing Waze with valuable information about road conditions, avearge speed, and additional map details. This information helps Waze to determine better directions for you and other drivers using the app. As you earn more points you rise in rank, relative to other Wazers, and are able to compare your road warrior status against your friends on Facebook who also use Waze. It is surprisingly addictive, expecially when you realize that you can play a Pac-Man style of game by driving over roads that require fresh data (your avatar turns into a Pac-Man and munches up the road). As you can tell, this is a very social way to approach GPS navigation. In addition to just passively providing data, you can also report traffic jams, speed traps and road hazards to warn other Wazers (you get points for those too).

I've been using the app now for a few weeks and am pretty happy with the results. Waze has been much better than Google Navigation at avoiding traffic jams and it provides surprisingly accurate ETAs when using the navigation. It only gets better as more people use it, so download it and start navigating better, together.

Download: http://www.waze.com/download/

Cord-cutting on the rise

The television watching landscape is changing dramatically with the coming generation of people who access media from multiple sources and don't necessarily rely on television for the majority of their entertainment. Neilson has recently published some numbers that show that more people are cutting the cord and people with broadcast-only TV are upgrading to broadband Internet before they even consider upgrading to cable television. This transition has been a few years in the making and still represents a small part of the population, however, this is indicative of a perceived lack of value in cable programming as well as a swell of content becoming available online. I'll admit that I still find it hard to find sports to watch but over time this has only made me realize that I spend too much time inside when I could be enjoying the game with fellow fans or rivals at the local pub.

Read More: http://techcrunch.com/2012/02/09/nielsen-cord-cutting-and-internet-tv-viewing-on-the-rise/

Kinect for Windows SDK going commercial in early 2012

I'm really looking forward to some polished and user-friendly implementation of Kinect into Windows Media Center. Flicking through the guide and pausing shows with hand motions would just be a barrel of fun for me.

Kinect for Windows SDK going commercial in early 2012:


The Kinect for Windows SDK, a beta version of which is already available to developers, is being prepared for a commercial rollout in early 2012.

Now this is camera magic...WOW

There are not too many products that come out these days that truly make me catch my breath. Finding new technology is more of a hum-drum hobby than an adventurous search into the unknown. Today, however, I really had a "WOW" kind of moment.

The Lytro camera debuted today and this little stick of a camera, called a light-field camera, produces some astounding results. Try out the demo below by clicking on the person in the background and then clicking on the bike tire in the foreground. Amazing!

How does it work? Well, that can be a little complicated as this involves some physics that are foreign to your own experience with light. First off, the camera is not just collecting light like a normal camera. Instead, a light-field camera is capable of recording, in addition to color and intensity, the vector direction of the rays of light. Knowing how all of the light made its way to your camera allows for a computer to manage focus using software. A normal camera uses hardware to focus in on one direction of light. The light-field camera captures all the possible focusing configurations. With this ability you can focus on any part of an image long after it was taken. In addition, you can then refocus the image as many times as you like.

Also, as you can see above, these images can be embedded on any website, even your Facebook wall.

More photo fun: https://www.lytro.com/living-pictures/

How does a self-driving car make decisions?

A self-driving Golf Cart too! Just first two minutes.

Flavors.me is a beautiful and highly usable way to set up your personal page

I was just checking out this website, flavors.me, and it is one of the coolest, sexiest places to host and design your personal information page. The design here is truly phenomenal. Simple, one-step sign-up and a clean interface provide an experience that is clear and straightforward while allowing for a lot of customization. Speaking of customization, if you want to add an even more unique look beyond what is available in the free version, you can upgrade to their premium service for just $20/year. It includes more fonts, SEO metadata, the ability to re-route from a custom domain, analytics and more.

Get the whole scoop in the following video.

WebGL provides a seamless Google Maps experience

WebGL allows web developers to build interactive 3D graphics within a modern browser (Chrome/Firefox). It basically allows websites to use your graphics card just like a desktop app or video game would. If you have a compatible browser and video card, you can head over to Google Maps and enable a WebGL experience. Using vector graphics, Google Maps with WebGL seamlessly zooms in and out without waiting for image tiles to load, transitions from maps to satellite images is snappy and swooping around the map in three dimensions feels natural.

This is how the future of web applications is going to look. Fast, reliable and nearly indistinguishable, in experience and performance, from their desktop counterparts.

See the video below for a demo.

Chrome Remote Desktop BETA now available

New Chrome App allows you to gain remote access or share access with any computer running the Chrome browser and this new app. It is fantastically simple in that you generate an access code and then use that code to access your computer (or someone else's, think of providing support to family/friends). Do note that Google has splashed BETA in big red letters all over this app so use with caution.

Chrome Remote Desktop BETA

GM gets into the car-sharing game

While I am about as far as you can get from the cities that support GetAround, a peer to peer car-sharing program, I am still a member and actively watch their progress. This sort of thing seems to make a lot of sense to me but I am somewhat skeptical about its adoption by the general consumer. I think people are still a bit suspicious about an internet company getting them rental cars from strangers. However, GM hopes to eliminate that fear by incorporating RelayRides, a new start-up similar to GetAround, into their OnStar service. In my opinion, this should alleviate consumer skepticism as OnStar is already a very well trusted brand.

Read more: TechCrunch - Car-sharing Startup RelayRides Partners With GM

This is the future?

FINALLY!

Japanese toilet motorcycle runs on human waste

Google + API trickles out

Developers can now get public posts and profiles out of Google Plus. Not enough to really get things going, but at least it is a start.
Read more: Mashable

It is about darn time...REAL cloud storage is here (soon)

I've been annoyed by cloud services up until now. They require some kind of triggered sync, a special page or app, or a special folder. Then these must be replicated on all of your devices. The problem with all of these is that they have been centered around sharing files or making a briefcase of files easily accessible. Anyone remember Microsoft Briefcase? Kudos if you do and you probably realize that most every cloud service, so far, has been a beefed up and better version of Briefcase by taking the step beyond removable media and networked PCs.

Now (soon, really) with Bitcasa we will be able to use the cloud as a real hard drive. Just got your tricked out 2TB hard-drive in your rig? Well, forget that, I can get a petabyte for just $10 a month (infinite storage, actually). Your physical storage simply becomes a cache for your files (and a home for your OS) before they get uploaded to your monster cloud drive. All files are encrypted, Bitcasa has no knowledge of the content of the data you upload and, most importantly, third-parties like the RIAA can't go snooping in your files. Also, you can create URL links to each of your files so sharing with others or providing yourself with quick access is a breeze.

This application showed up and became a finalist during TechCrunch Disrupt and this is sure to disrupt a lot of business out there, big and small. I look forward to seeing what all can be done with this product.

Read more: TC-With Bitcasa, The Entire Cloud Is Your Hard Drive For Only $10 Per Month