hardware

Cloud Computing through the Ages

May 12, 2011

The Network is the Computer – Sun Microsystems – 1990s Nothing but Web – Google – 2011 Two perspectives on an old idea, twenty years apart. For a humorous perspective on Silicon Valley spin, check out Larry Ellison’s schtick at the Churchill Club, “The Cloud is Water Vapor.”

0 comments

Information as Entertainment

May 3, 2011

OK, so word is out that Solid State Drives (SSD) are not as reliable as they were once thought to be. Essentially, we projected the decades of expertise that have gone into making hard disks reliable onto these new drives and expected more or less the same level of reliability. Of course, as people started [...]

0 comments

The $8,000 dumb phone

May 2, 2011

When you can afford a personal secretary to keep track of your every need, a mobile phone is basically a piece of jewelry, much like a wrist watch or pocket watch of by-gone days. These are single-purpose devices that are a fashion statement, more form than function. Taking this approach, focused on the voice aspects [...]

0 comments

Clever Hack for Mobile User Studies

April 30, 2011

For less than $100 you too can whip together a pocket cam rig to film test users of your mobile app and spot trouble areas. From the Artefact blog: Staring over your participant’s shoulder isn’t creating the most natural situation when testing user experiences. You get less than ideal viewing angles, participants can’t get into [...]

0 comments

WVIL Concept Camera

April 28, 2011

Flickr’s Camera Finder tells us that the traditional point-and-shoot cameras are on the way out while, as a whole, camera phones are on the way in. As the saying goes, the best camera is the one you have in your pocket. What if one were to go with this trend and merge what’s best about [...]

0 comments

First Crowd-Sourced Car Company

April 27, 2011

I just listened to a TWiST interview with John “Jay” Rogers, President and CEO of Local Motors, a Southern California company that has set up a platform for a vibrant community of car enthusiasts to share and vote on each other’s car designs. There first car, the Rally Fighter, is coming off the line and [...]

0 comments

Eco-friendly module housing from Finland

April 4, 2011

4Nature is a Finnish company that makes modular homes that are easy to construct, giving people in disaster zones long term shelter, getting them out of tents or other short term shelters. A 55-square meter house can be built by three people in 48 hours using simple tools without electricity. I met Mikael Arpiainen, the CEO [...]

0 comments

PowerKiss, Wireless Charging from Finland

March 23, 2011

Wireless charging technology has been around since Nikola Tesla came up with the idea. In that sense, Finland startup PowerKiss is no different. Put the receiver (the Ring) into your phone and then place it on top of the power transmitter (the Heart) which is designed to be attached or built into furniture. But unlike Powermat, [...]

0 comments

The Future of Glass

February 22, 2011

For Corning, the future is made of glass. Corning makes Gorilla glass (check out this video) that is found in the Nokia N8, the LG Optimus 7 that I’m test driving and many other smartphones.

1 comment

Touch Wood Phone?

February 21, 2011

I love Japanese design, everything was looking great about this latest concept model from Sharp. The concept was really cool (you can read more about it on WirelessWatch Japan) until I heard the name. What’s that in your pocket again?

1 comment