Yet I'm wondering where all the media...

A Gyroscope That Will Set the Tech World Spinning

By Renay San Miguel
TechNewsWorld
06/11/10 5:00 AM PT

One of the most interesting new features in the iPhone 4 is the internal gyroscope that Apple CEO Steve Jobs demonstrated by playing a virtual game of Jenga. Combining a gyroscope with previous iPhone accoutrements -- like the compass, accelerometer and GPS -- is going to open new doors for developers on multiple platforms, and not just for gaming.

Yet I'm wondering where all the media love is for the announcement that Apple was sticking a gyroscope in the iPhone 4. Jobs demonstrated this by moving around on the stage while playing a Jenga-like game on the phone. The game "Pieces" instantly responded to his movements, and it did indeed hit new PCQ levels.

Game One

The gaming press is certainly having fun talking up the potential game-changing (sorry) impact from all this on that industry, and for good reason: The iPhone 3GS was already a first-class handheld gaming console even without the traditional buttons and joysticks. The accelerometer and the juiced-up processor provided a handy platform for developers to take their own games to the next level, and most of them came through, judging from the continued success of the App Store and the interest in writing for it, SDK restrictions be damned.

I wrote about this last September here, and I'd have to admit that the issues raised regarding pricing and developer decisions (do I write for the iPhone or Nintendo DS/Sony PSP? How do I make my game tell the difference between an early iPhone and the 3GS?) didn't seem to slow things down that much. Gaming apps are flying out of the Store, and since that story, I've interviewed other small developers who saw the gaming potential in Apple's smartphone and are hard at work trying to come up with the next "Plants vs. Zombies."

So now those developers have a gyroscope to think about as it works in conjunction with the smartphone's existing accelerometer, compass and super-fast A4 processor -- the same one found in the iPad. Now gamers can set themselves up in open space via a new way to control their characters or vehicles in a gaming app. And if it will work for the iPhone 4, why not the next versions of the iPad and the iPod touch?

But I want to hear some talk and read some thoughts about how the six-axis capabilities in the gyro/accelerometer/compass ensemble will affect next-level development of augmented reality apps. I have to admit that I'm a sucker for AR toys like Layar, which pop up balloons with Yelp recommendations, Wikipedia info andTwitter activity over whatever you're looking at live with the smartphone's camera. It's my own heads-up display on the world, and I rank the PCQ at warp factor 9. So now developers get to integrate a gyroscope into those particular applications, and there's nowhere to go but up -- while pitching and rolling.

A Big Spin

Market researchers at iSuppli are certainly paying attention. The company's report this week forecast that gyroscope suppliers would see their business zoom to US$220 million over the next four years from a standing start of zero in 2009.

Media Tablets - a Bakers Dozen

Android Tablets - a bakers dozen?
from egadget

GEM Solution - About Drift Innovation

About Drift Innovation

Drift Innovation are all about sharing your passion, in this case your mud, snow, oil and sweat fuelled passions. We know you like to get out with your friends and share your most exciting adrenaline filled experiences. We do too so we tried to create stuff that is easy to use, great quality and does everything that you want it to do.

At Drift we use cameras and we get out and talk to people who use them even more than we do. That′s how we came up with the X170 Action Camera, simple to use and packed full of features.

We love to hear from people. Like our cameras let us know, if not then we want to hear from you even more. We want to be the best at making stuff people want so the more you tell us the better we can be.

Otherwise, got a suggestion, a question, a problem, need sponsorship or you just want to talk about cameras or some crazy sport you want help filming then drop us an email or pick up the phone, we′d love to chew the fat.

Are you an action sports retailer or distributor. Do you share Drifts vision for helping people share their passion and their most exciting experiences then contact us. We′d love you to join the ever growing Drift family.

Info : info@driftinnovation.com Dealers : dealer@driftinnovation.com

Tel: +44 (0) 20 3327 1290

Address:
Drift Innovation,
Unit 36,
Park Royal Business Centre,
9 - 17 Park Royal Road,
London, NW10 7LQ

Springteq introduces WeGo HUD / GPS f...

Springteq introduces WeGo HUD / GPS for your auto

from Engadget by Joseph L. Flatley

45 people liked this

This certainly isn't the first automobile HUD we've seen, although, to be quite honest, we're still pretty appalled by the lack of futuristic displays in our whips. Manufactured by Springteq of Taiwan, the WeGo HUD navigator integrates a GPS to project navigation data on your windshield. The projector itself features 400 x 240 resolution, 500:1 contrast ratio, and a 4.5-inch image size. Brightness automatically adjusts depending on ambient light levels (courtesy of an optical sensor) and controls are mounted on your steering wheel to keep your hands where they should be while you drive. The basis of the system is a Windows CE device with 2GB flash memory and an SDHC card slot. Both this and the WeGo mini should see the light of day (so to speak) in Q4 2010 -- just as soon as Springteq can find a partner company to help bring it to market. Video after the break.

Continue reading Springteq introduces WeGo HUD / GPS for your auto

Adobe: Flash on 53 Percent of All Sma...

Adobe: Flash on 53 Percent of All Smartphones Shipping in 2012 [Digital Daily]

from All Things Digital by John Paczkowski

2 people liked this

Apple CEO Steve Jobs says Adobe’s Flash platform, like floppy disks and serial ports before it, is a technology that has outlived its usefulness. But according to Adobe, Flash has some legs yet.

In an interview with Reuters, Anup Murarka, director of technical marketing for mobile and devices at Adobe (ADBE), claims 53 percent of all smartphones shipping in 2012 will support Flash, Jobs and his Thoughts on Flash polemic be damned.

For comparison, industry analysts expect 200 million smartphones to ship this year, 10 percent of them Flash-capable. In 2012, smartphone sales are expect to hit 300 million, and if Adobe does manage to get a respectable version of Flash on more than half of them, it will indeed have something to crow about.

“You’re going to see Flash not only on [Google's] Android. Consumers will see devices from Palm (PALM), Research in Motion Ltd’s (RIMM) Blackberry, Nokia’s (NOK) Symbian and Microsoft (MSFT) Windows Phone 7 support the full Flash Player,” Murarka said. “Maybe we don’t get to the iPhone or iPad. If anything, we’re seeing continued growth in the install base and the usage of Flash and we see that continuing to grow.”

But that’s today, when HTML5 is still a nascent standard. With its adoption being hastened aggressively by Apple (AAPL), the situation could be very different in two years.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Thursday, June 10, 2010

FalconView 4.3 Renamed to FalconView 4.2.1

At the request of it's major sponsors, Georgia Tech is renaming FalconView 4.3 to FalconView 4.2.1. Sorry for the confusion.

06/08/2010

06/08/2010

Review: Magnetic macro lens for HTC EVO 4G

Posted by Jenn K. Lee
Categories: Accessories, Features, Reviews

The HTC EVO's 8-megapixel rear camera can produce some pretty outstanding close-up pictures (I think this one is particularly impressive), but it isn't capable of taking true macros.

Not without help, that is.

Enter the magnet-mounted macro lens designed for cell phones and digital cameras. There are several different brands and types of these lenses available on Amazon,eBay, and other places, and while they look comical when attached to the EVO's rear camera, they make a significant difference in macro image quality.

The lens I have is a wide/macro combination that can be separated so that the macro lens can be used alone, but I believe there are macro-only lenses out there too.

This lens comes with a plastic cap for the larger wide angle lens, two metal rings that can be affixed to devices that don't havemagnetic material around their lenses, and a powerful magnetic cover attached to a short lanyard to protect the bottom of the lens.

Without using one of the metal rings, which I refused to do since it looks terrible, the wide angle lens falls off the EVO (it's too heavy), which makes it useless unless you want to hold it in place when snapping a picture.

The macro lens, on the other hand, will stay in place if you don't jostle it around too much.

There's no "trick" to using the lens. Just get close to your subject, wait for it to focus, press the shutter button, and voila! Look at this unaltered picture of a penny I took using the lens:

Here are some additional samples I took to illustrate how much better macro photoscan be with a magnetic macro lens.

In the following set:

• The top photo is the best possible close-up I could take with the EVO's rearcamera.
• The middle photo is an attempted macro shot taken without the macro lens.
• The bottom photo is taken with the macro lens from the same distance as the previous attempt.

In the next set of images, both photos were taken from the same distance away from the subject. The top pictures are obviously the ones taken without the macro lens.