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Posts Tagged ‘Genius’

SK Telecom’s Android SIM prototype combines CPU, storage and OS into one (video)

This is the future, we tell ya! Not the immediate future, mind you, as it’s a humble prototype with no commercial intentions behind it, but it sure looks like the right direction for us to be moving in. SK Telecom has somehow fit a processing chip, memory, a gigabyte of flash storage and Google’s Android OS onto the SIM you see above. The concept is pure genius — you store your entire mobile environment on the SIM card, including your contacts, operating system and customizations, which should then allow you to switch up your handset hardware as often as you like without the need to set it up anew each and every time. We’ll head to SK Telecom’s booth at MWC later today for a closer look, but for now you should click past the break for a video.

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SK Telecom’s Android SIM prototype combines CPU, storage and OS into one (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Feb 2010 08:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple may be paying to get flawed iMacs back in the UK

Apple is reportedly offering UK iMac owners full refunds plus 15 percent of the original purchase price for 27″ iMacs suffering any of the maladies that have plagued the model since its release in October of 2009. According to an Apple Authorized shop speaking to Gizmodo, Apple has already completed the transaction with two of the shop’s customers. Apple seems to be brokering the deals due to a shortage in parts needed to repair the units, as well as a repair backlog of over 200 machines.

The 27″ iMacs have had problems from the get-go with some users reporting issues with discolored displays and others reporting flickering screens. Most recently, there were reports of an internal support document telling technicians to explain that slight screen variations are normal, but if the customer continued to complain, to say that the machine could be repaired in “approximately three weeks.” If that wasn’t enough, they were told to offer a refund, but not a replacement.

When Ars called an official Apple Store in the US to inquire about refunds, they were of little help and recommended we make an appointment with a “Genius” or call the AppleCare support number. Likewise, when we called two Apple Certified dealers, we received very similar responses. One tech did direct us to the recently released firmware update, but was unable to tell us anything regarding refunds or part lead times.

The reports are based on a small number of cases, but Gizmodo’s source seemed quite confident that these were not isolated results. Nonetheless, we remain skeptical of Apple offering refunds—let alone refunds plus 15 percent—until more reports come in. That being said, if you are at your wit’s end with your iMac, it can’t hurt to ask. Maybe with the extra cash you can upgrade to a Mac Pro.

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Disney’s KeyChest is not DRM

There’s a lot going on at CES, and one of those things was a presentation by Disney explaining its KeyChest concept. We attended and was surprised to learn that KeyChest has almost nothing to do with DRM. We were rolling our eyes when we heard Disney proclaim that KeyChest was complementary to DECE, but now that we understand what KeyChest is, we agree. The easiest way to explain it is with an example and the most obvious to us is iTunes and Comcast. Both companies offer video on demand and use their own DRM to prevent copying. If both participated in KeyChest — this isn’t studio based — and we bought a movie on iTunes, the next time we hit up Comcast VOD we’d be able to watch the same movie without paying again. The genius of the idea is how simple it is, basically the participantes report your purchases to the KeyChest and query it to see what else you bought. It is a simple transaction, but Disney didn’t tell us what strings were attached to join up, but did say that the the product wasn’t meant to be profitable, but of course would not operate at a loss either. The other obvious thing mentioned was that Disney realizes that the entire system is useless if it doesn’t reach critical mass.

Disney’s KeyChest is not DRM originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 Jan 2010 07:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rambler Socket tucks a recoiling extension cable, pinch of genius within your AC outlet

Meysam Movahedi’s latest concept certainly isn’t the first revolutionary tweak to the tried-and-true power outlet, but it’s easily one of our favorites. Put simply, the Rambler Socket is an in-wall box that contains 1.5 meters of extra cabling along with a traditional AC outlet. Granted, you’ll need a pretty deep wall to make something like this work (in theory, of course), but the result is nothing short of brilliant. If your AC cord is long enough, you simply plug it into the socket per usual; if you need a little extra length, the built-in extension cord pulls out with a gentle tug. Once you’re done, you simply tug on it the cable once more and watch as it recoils back within the wall. GE, or someone — can we get a contract to this guy, pronto?

Rambler Socket tucks a recoiling extension cable, pinch of genius within your AC outlet originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Dec 2009 01:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Moodagent: Going iTunes Playlists one better

Filed under: iTunes, iPhone, iPod touch, App Review, Music

Moodagent [iTunes Link] (free for now) puts a new spin on the iTunes Genius Playlist system. Instead of leaving it up to Apple to give you category based Genius Playlists, Moodagent, gives you some control over what songs will appear in a 25 song customizable playlist of your music.

You are given 5 colored bars, each with an icon representing an aspect of music. The symbols didn’t make much sense to me, but by hitting an info button, I found that the icons represented, in order: Sensual, Tender, Joy, Aggressive and Tempo. I could have used a full explanation of what they meant by Aggressive and Tempo, but trial and error gave me a rough idea. By increasing or decreasing the size of each of the bars, a 25 song Playlist is created, complete with cover art icons, that can be played or saved for later recall. Increase or decrease one or more of the bars and the playlist instantly changes, so if you like a playlist, it’s a good idea to save it before changing anything. Once saved, a tap will play your chosen playlist. When saving, you are also given the opportunity to title the playlist any way you like, with the first song being the default title.

Another way of making a playlist, again similar to the iTunes Genius playlist, is to select a seed song to base the list upon. Choose one song and then adjust the bars to tailor the list to your liking.

When first loading the app, you run a sync that indexes all the music on your iPhone/iPod touch running OS 3.0 or better, with their server. My iPhone has about 2100 songs on it and syncing took about 10 minutes. When done, I was told that it couldn’t sync about 750 songs. This wasn’t surprising since my tastes tend toward the arcane, but there’s a solution for that. You are asked to download a Moodagent Profiler application that, as does iTunes Genius playlists, upload anonymous information from the iTunes library on your computer, which is assumed to have more music on it than does your mobile device. This information is used to expand the Moodagent database. After running the Moodagent Profiler on my roughly 6100 song Macbook Pro iTunes library, which took over an hour, I re-synced Moodagent and this time the number of songs that couldn’t be synced reduced to 149.

So why didn’t it find 149 songs?
One reason is that Moodagent doesn’t handle anything encoded with DRM. I haven’t yet discovered other reasons, since I only had about 60 songs in my iTunes Purchased folder. At its introduction the Moodagent database was reported to contain over 7 million songs, which is a start, but as more people use the Moodagent Profiler and increase the database, similar to the Genius Playlist system, results should get better.

Moodagent has only been out for a few days and as expected, some results are a bit odd. For no good reason, I turned Sensuality all the way up and everything else all the way down. Many of the results made sense, but Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel? Pretty weird. My guess is that if Moodagent sells well, and the database gets dramatically expanded, results will get more predictable.

I like this app quite a lot, but I like its potential even better. The more people that upload library data using the Moodagent Profiler, the better Moodagent will become over time. On the downside: I’d like to see the 25 song restriction taken off letting the user determine the size of the playlist. I also have a few other nits to pick, like the Save and Open Playlist button positioning. As it stands, those options are always in a space just above the first song, so if you’re scrolling around your list, you won’t find a way to save it. This I consider minor since I was able to figure it out in under a minute, but it would be nice to have these buttons be persistent.

Download it and check it out. The price is certainly right, and I’ve already created a number of very enjoyable playlists that the sledgehammer (can’t get that song out of my mind) approach of the iTunes Genius system, couldn’t touch. Like Bookmark, for audio books, Moodagent takes an Apple system and fine tunes it, giving you something you didn’t know you needed until you start playing with it and find it invaluable.

Check out this video to see Moodagent put through its paces.

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TUAWMoodagent: Going iTunes Playlists one better originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 19 Dec 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s boring, until it’s not: the subtle genius of Heavy Rain

The scariest scene I played in a video game this year took place inside a mall, when I was tasked with watching my virtual child in Heavy Rain. The scene that unfolds uses a few tricks to keep you disoriented, and the tension is slowly increased until it’s nearly unbearable. The way the action is laid out is hard to describe without spoilers, but the end result is nightmarish, and the pacing makes the outcome feel almost inescapable. This is a game that’s going to divide critics, and gamers will find it either the high point of the industry or a complete failure.

Which one is it? I’ve played through the first few hours, and I can’t make up my mind. I will say that we’ve never seen anything quite like it, and the emotional pay-off for these characters is high. These aren’t power fantasies we’re moving around a screen, and they don’t do amazing things. They’re people, and the game puts them in terrible circumstances to see how you, the player, will react.

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Apple quietly updates the 5th Generation iPod nano to 1.0.2

Filed under: Audio, Software Update, iPod nano

• Fixed audiobook playbook setting so Normal, Slower, Faster, works for audio podcasts
• Resolved issue where Genius Mixes did not work when using the Nike+ Sport Kit
• Accessibility setting for Mono Audio in now working
• Fixed bug so VoiceOver menu items are no longer skipped when using headphone + and – volume buttons to navigate

As always, you can download this update by clicking on the “Check for Update” button in iTunes when you connect your iPod nano to your computer.

TUAWApple quietly updates the 5th Generation iPod nano to 1.0.2 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Zivity Adds Dudes. Let Me Know How It Goes (#zivitydude)

Venture backed adult site Zivity finally figured out that there’s a whole other market out there beyond guys (and a few women) who want to look at naked women. Lots of women (and a few men) apparently want to look at naked guys, too. So in a lightning bolt of marketing genius, they doubled their potential market size in a single blog post: Zividudes.

They’re taking nominations for who users want to see without their clothes on (topless for now). Once the list is set they’ll start going down the list to see who’s brave enough to say yes: “We’ll start with the top choice and work our way down until someone is brave enough to say yes! We’ll pay for the photo shoot by one of our top photographers, so the Zivity Dude will look *fantastic*.”

Who do you want to see shirtless? Twitter the name out with the hashtag #zivitydude and your vote will be counted. Early favorites include Kevin Rose, Chris Saad, Loren Feldman (although his wife is making the push), Jim Fishef and Sean Percival.

Let me know how it all turns out. And be on the lookout for Ashton Kutcher to try to steal the show. That guy will do anything for a little press. In fact, maybe Kutcher and Kevin Rose can do a dual bromance photoshoot?

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

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