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Posts Tagged ‘Period Of Time’

Meet The New Foursquare. Same As The Old Foursquare — But Prettier.

It’s hardly a secret that all of the major location-based players are planning big updates to their services to coincide with the SXSW festival starting next week in Austin, Texas. One of them peeked out a bit early: Foursquare.

Earlier today, the latest version of Foursquare, 1.6, went live in the App Store for a brief period of time. I’ve been using the build for a couple of days, and while the functionality isn’t all that different from the previous versions, the look-and-feel has been completely revamped.

This is notable because the vast majority of Foursquare users are still using the iPhone (67%). So this update will be a welcome change for many, especially as Foursquare and Gowalla continue to compete. Gowalla, while smaller than Foursquare, is generally considered to be the prettier of the two. Certainly, with its new website revamp, Gowalla still holds that title on the web, but the new Foursquare app looks pretty nice compared to the Gowalla iPhone app now.

So what’s different? The entire color palette is now a mixture of silver, blue, white, and bright green. Some may not like the bright green elements, but it’s effective to let people know where to click when you want to check-in. Also new is the fact that the “Shout” button is emphasized on the upper left part of the main screen. “Shouting” is basically the equivalent of tweeting out a message, it allows you to send a message to your followers without having to check-in at a place. It’s a bit odd that this is now a main button on the left side while the “Check-in” button is on the right side (considering most people read left to right).

Another new element is the idea of categories. As we wrote about a couple of days ago, Foursquare is starting to categorize venues into certain categories. While there isn’t much you can do with these yet on the new iPhone app, you are able to see icons that represent how a venue is categorized.

Something else new that is nice is that you can click on individual venues in your friend stream to load that venue’s main screen (which now shows who is there, right away). Previously, you had to click on your friend, then click over to see the venue — so this saves time.

While using the app, I wondered if Apple would approve it given that it uses the text, email, and phone icons used by the iPhone itself within the app (see screenshot below), but apparently if they accidentally put it in the store today, they’re going to be okay with those icons. These icons are shown on the new profile pages, which also show how many mayorships a member as, as well as how many badges they’ve earned. Interestingly, the point-based element of the app has been depreciated a bit, as that’s how a harder-to-get-to area of the app.

As a bonus to this advanced iPhone preview that some users got today, Foursquare also launched a new version of its Android app tonight. I’ve been playing with that for a few minutes, and that seems very solid as well. Look for the new version of Foursquare iPhone app at some point late next week when SXSW starts.

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DARPA longs for magnetic body healers, crazy respawn camps
Even DARPA understands that its futuristic bubble shield can be penetrated given the right circumstances, and when it does, the soldier behind it is going to need some serious healing. In a hurry. In the entity’s newest budget, there’s $6.5 million tucked away “for the creation of a scaffold-free tissue engineering platform, which would allow the construction of large, complex tissues in vitro and in vivo.” As you well know, this type of mad science has been around for quite some time, and now it looks as if DARPA is ready for the next best thing: “non-contact forces.” Put simply, this alludes to replacing scaffolds with magnetic fields or dielectrophoresis, which could purportedly “control cell placement in a desired pattern for a sufficient period of time to allow the cells to synthesize their own scaffold.” It’s still too early to say how close we are to being able to instantaneously heal soldiers on the battlefield, but frankly, the public is apt to never know for sure.

DARPA longs for magnetic body healers, crazy respawn camps originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Feb 2010 04:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung Beam (Halo) Android projector phone hands-on

Well here it is, Samsung’s pico projector phone live and in the flesh here at Mobile World Congress. And surprise surprise it’s running Android 2.1 with a TouchWiz 3.0 skin just as we heard. The only difference is the name: Halo is the codename, the official product name announced today is Beam. As a smartphone with integrated pico projector it’s very impressive. However, as you can see from the pictures and video (it’s coming), the 6 lumen brightness struggles even under the semi-controlled lighting demonstration set up here on the show floor in Barcelona. Samsung tells us that the TouchWiz implementation is nearly identical to what you’ll find on Bada with “very small” differences. Unfortunately, the people we spoke with on the show floor weren’t able to articulate exactly what those were. To us, having only used the two devices for a short period of time, they do look identical. Beam features a nice pass through trick that allows it to project the image seen by the 5 megapixel camera through the TI pico. Not sure how we’d use that in real life but it’s a neat trick nonetheless. Now click into the gallery and prepare to be amazed at just how thin a smartphone with integrated projector can be while we wait for the summer launch.

Samsung Beam (Halo) Android projector phone hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Feb 2010 04:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Former Apple engineer: Fingerworks may be a part of the tablet

Filed under: Hardware, Rumors, Software, Apple, Developer

The New York Times is the latest big source of tablet rumors today, and they went way back for the latest stab in the dark. All the way back to 2005, when Apple purchased a little company called Fingerworks, known for their work with gesture recognition on a multitouch interface like the Touchstream keyboard above. The Gray Lady says they spoke with “former Apple engineers” who have worked on the tablet itself, and those guys claim that it makes use of gesture recognition to operate: “for example, three fingers down and rotate could mean ‘open an application.’” Another former employee told them that Apple’s been putting together a multitouch version of iWork for years, and that the tablet is actually a full-featured Mac, not just an e-reader or larger iPod touch.

Of course, we don’t know how long ago these Apple engineers worked for the company — given that the App Store has vastly changed things over there in just the last year and a half, the tablet itself could have changed its focus in that same period of time. At this point, given all of the things you can do with a multitouch screen, finger gestures are probably the least impressive. But then again, Apple’s been obsessed with multitouch for a while, so it’s not a stretch to think they might be included some of this FingerWorks technology in a larger multitouch screen. Wait and see, wait and see.

[via MacRumors]

TUAWFormer Apple engineer: Fingerworks may be a part of the tablet originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 11 Jan 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Web Toolkit: Now Making Your Apps Even Faster, Smaller, And Tidier

This evening at its Campire One event, Google showcased a number of new technologies coming to Google Web Toolkit (you can see my live blog of the event here). The big announcements include the release of a new Speed Tracer tool to help developers speed up their web apps; a code splitting tool that enables developers to deploy apps as incremental downloads; and UiBinder, a UI framework that allows developers to seperate the ‘logic’ presentation of their apps from the presentation portion.

Speed Tracer is a new extension for Google Chrome that is meant to help developers streamline their web applications. In particular, the tool is built to help optimize AJAXy applications. Obviously there are other tools for speed optimization, but many of these have to do with load time. Speed Tracer is meant to track performance over an extended period of time, as users tap into an app’s various functions. Google’s Andrew Bowers explains that Speed Tracer can track performance bottlenecks in ways that were not previously possible, because it taps into APIs that were built into Webkit for that very purpose (APIs other browser engines don’t offer).

The tool will allow developers to isolate exactly which functions in their app are taking a long time to perform, allowing them to monitor performance in real time. It will suggest that developers take a look at certain problem functions (namely actions that take over 100ms, which is when users begin to notice a lag time).

The second major addition announced at tonight’s event is developer guided code splitting. Bowers says that when the Google Wave team was first building Wave, the size of their JavaScript app grew to 1.4 megabytes (that’s a lot, and will lead to a long initial loading time for users). To help deal with this Google found a way to split code into chunks and to only initially serve the portions users needed. In other words, when you go to Wave now, your browser is only downloading the portion of the app it needs to run the most basic functions. If you decide you want to access something beyond that — say, the Settings menu — the app will quickly fetch that once you click the ‘Settings’ button.

This isn’t the first time developers have been able to split their code — in fact, some of them try to fully automate the process. Bowers says that Google is taking a different approach. Rather than try to fully automate the code splitting, Google Web Toolkit will allow developers to pick and choose which functions users will need to be able to access. The tool will then identify which code corresponds to those functions. In effect, developers are still responsible for choosing which functions they want to have available on the app’s initial load, but the tool can manage things beyond that.

The third tool to launch this evening was UiBinder, which came out of some of the work Google has done with AdWords. Bowers describes UiBinder as a declarative UI that allows developers to bind a layout template and associate it with a Java file, without having to merge the two. He explains that in a typical Java file, developers often have to combine the layout portion of the application with the logic portion of the app. In that scenario, when a designer wants to tweak the look of the app, the logic has to be tweaked too. Using UiBinder, developers can keep the two separate, so layouts can be adjusted without having to rewrite any logic code.

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

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More Trouble for File Sharing: Virgin to Monitor Filesharing in UK

Virgin Media, one of the UK’s leading providers of television/broadband/mobile/phone services, has announced plans to use deep packet inspection technology to track illegal file-sharing activity among around 40 percent of its UK users. Users whose activities are being monitored will not be informed of this fact.

The tech comes from Detica, a company better known for working with government data and intelligence agencies than media files and P2P networks. Their CView product is designed to help put an end to illegal filesharing, and with ISPs showing interest, it’s unlikely that Virgin’s deal will be the last we hear about.

Sponsor

In a lengthy document on illegal filesharing, Detica outlines how CView can be used to baseline the level of illicit filesharing then continue to measure the same activity as punitive measures are rolled out. The company believes that every ISP has an obligation to reduce illegal filesharing “by an agreed percentage over a period of time,” a goal that can only be achieved through accurate, thorough measurement of user activity – this is the very reason Detica created CView.

Beyond measuring user activity on P2P networks, CView will not collect data on individual users. Raw traffic data and identification information is reportedly deleted in the closed system and cannot be accessed by a human operator. CView gathers data on peer-to-peer packets in user traffic and then inspects the packets to see whether the content is being shared illegally.

Although the tech only examines aggregate traffic data, and although a Virgin spokeperson states that records will not be maintained on individual users, privacy concerns are right behind raining-on-our-parade concerns when one examines the question of monitoring user behavior. Isn’t warning, fining, censoring and/or restricting access for infringing users the next logical step?

Give us your doomsday scenario – or your vote of confidence for the Detica/Virgin partnership – in the comments.

Discuss

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Ben Heck throws together one-handed Xbox 360 controller, probably with one hand

Ben Heck. Just the mere mention of the name brings chills to the spines of all who mod, and if today’s the first day you’ve ever come into contact with those seven letters, prepare to be changed. Forever. The Great Modder’s latest gig involved the creation of a one-handed Xbox 360 controller, but the catch was that it required completion within a ridiculously short period of time. Essentially, the left analog stick was repositioned to fit on the underside of the controller, enabling the user to operate that with his / her leg while handling the right side of the pad as usual. Check out a video of the admittedly raw looking final product after the break, and feel free to grab some inspiration while you’re there.

[Via HackADay]

Continue reading Ben Heck throws together one-handed Xbox 360 controller, probably with one hand

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

Ben Heck throws together one-handed Xbox 360 controller, probably with one hand originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Sep 2009 02:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Palm Pre rumored to be dropping to $150 on September 8th

We’ve already seen the Palm Pre dip below its $199 list price during a few limited, occasionally inadvertent sales, but it looks like it could soon be dropping well under the $200 mark for a slightly longer period of time — at least if a purportedly legit leaked document is to be believed. According to PreCentral, the doc comes from someone working at a Sprint “indirect partner retail dealer,” and quite clearly indicates that “indirect partners” will be able to sell the Pre for $149.99 (after a mail-in rebate) between September 8th and October 31st, 2009. Presumably, Sprint itself would also be offering the Pre for the same price during that time and, if the HTC Hero’s $179.99 price tag on Sprint is any indication, there seems to be at least a decent chance that the price drop could eventually become a permanent one. Either way, we won’t have to wait too long to see how this one pans out.

Filed under: Cellphones

Palm Pre rumored to be dropping to $150 on September 8th originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Sep 2009 18:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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