Cool toys and Gadgets

Section: Apple, Communications, Cellphones, Mobile, Web, Downloads, Web 2.0

Vlingo Corporation has introduced a free voice-based iPhone application called vlingo, that interacts with other iPhone applications.  It is not your run-of-the-mill voice-activated dialing app.

In addition to voice-dialing, you can also voice activate a Yahoo! or Google search, a Google Map search, and even update your status on Twitter and Facebook.  You simply open the vlingo application, press and hold the “press and speak” button on your screen, and then say whatever it is you want to search for or update.  Vlingo claims that users can speak normally—that is, no special commands are necessary for vlingo to work.  It will be interesting to see how well this works in everyday use.

Read [vlingo]

Full Story » | Written by Iyaz Akhtar for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

Section: Audio, Web, Websites

The idea of Reality TV with music has been around since American Idol where people auditioned to be put into the knock out competition where eventually the top prize was a juicy record contract and a nice cash prize.  This idea has now moved into the Internet domain (no pun intended) with YouTube, who is now taking auditions for their own Symphony Orchestra.

The idea of an organization having it’s own orchestra is nothing new (it all started with the BBC in 1930) but this is a good example of how the world is becoming more globalized and encouraging anyone to have a go.  The idea is that people will film themselves playing parts of the specially selected Symphony (which I will talk about later) to show their talent, as well as one to show their overall personality.

Similar to TV shows, there will be a panel of “experts” as well as public participation although in a different way to usual.  The experts are members of the London Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.  They will select the semi-finalists to ensure that only quality acts get through (to avoid problems experienced in the UK where the public consistently chose the worst dancer in Strictly Come Dancing because he was a likeable person).  The vote will then go to the public to choose the final selection of people for the Orchestra.

The chosen ones will then perform the Internet Symphony No 1 “Eroica” at a concert in New York conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas who is the musical director of the San Francisco Symphony.  The piece has been specially composed by Tan Dun, and does have a fairly oriental feel as well as having quotes form Beethoven and some unusual percussion.

This is a great innovation: incorporating the undoubted history of classical music with the modern world and allowing people to use technology to dictate what will happen.  Combining this new and old will definitely introduce supporters of one to the other, i.e. youngsters interested and wanting to vote will get to experience classical music whilst the opposite is true for some older classical lovers regarding technology.

This really is a great idea and it also demonstrates the great power that websites have and how previously virtual worlds are crossing into reality.  I personally think that this is how technology should be used and that it is constructive to all involved as it uses technology to appeal to a wider audience.  In case you are feeling particularly musical, feel free to upload your audition by January 28th and keep your fingers crossed for the judging on Valentines Day (I doubt that that is a coincidence!)

Source [Guardian]
Read [YouTube Symphony]

Full Story » | Written by Christian Milsom for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

Additional news from the Nokia front: The company announced the launch of Nokia messaging – a new push email service that consolidates access to consumer email and IM on Nokia devices – as well as an online portal for Mail on Ovi – allowing PC users to create and access Ovi email accounts as well as other Ovi services through a single sign-on account.

Nokia Messaging will launch in the Q1 2009 in Australia, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, the UK, and Venezuela. It will be an operator supported service that will enable push access to email and IM access straight to Nokia devices. The service will work with popular messaging platforms including Windows Live Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, and ISP mail services. Owners of Nokia S60 devices can try the service for free as a limited period beta trial. All you’ll need to do is head to email.nokia.com and download and setup the application to work with your existing email accounts. Emails are then “seamlessly pushed to their mobile device”.

Nokia also introduced web access to Mail on Ovi, giving users 1GB of storage space and spam filters to block unwanted email messages. Creating an account on Mail on Ovi will also provide access to other Ovi services through a single sign-on account – both on the phone and on the PC. A beta version of Mail on Ovi will be introduced in December in 12 languages. The web access version will launch in February of 2009.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Nokia Messaging, Mail on Ovi

Section: Communications, Cellphones, Smartphones, Mobile

Yesterday, Palm issued a warning that their sales fell far from the rosy estimate analysts were expecting.  Citing the usual slumping economy, increased competition, and the alignment of Jupiter and Mars, Palm is finding themselves in financial quicksand and their wriggling is pulling them downward quickly.  Palm’s warning: “we are off 41%.“  Ouch.

Palm announced a contraction of its staff, consolidation of its European unit and their Asian units will take ques from the US offices.  The refocused Palm that emerges will be working with the clock ticking as trading of the companies stock yesterday got interesting when it plummeted almost 10%.  What can turn this boat around?

If you are of a certain age, then you’ve been waiting for the “new OS” to save the company.  Unfortunately, delays in development have left the door open just enough for RIM and Apple to sneak inside.  The new OS, if it is to be believed that it is capable, will have to do two things to compete:

• Be available on a range of form factors, something Palm hasn’t done that well at.  BlackBerries come in seemingly thousands of varieties from flip to candybar to touch and are updating them at a blurring pace.  Palm hasn’t been good at this in the past; do we believe they can in the immediate future?
• Is the OS fun to use?  Apple has a lot going on, but the underlying factor driving sales is the software makes the experience fun.  The Palm OS, back in the day, was efficient, bordering on fun.  Can Palm put fun into the mix of their OS and capture some excitement?

That is a mighty tall order for an OS that has been delayed again and again.  I believe we are setting the new OS to be the Hail Mary to save Palm.  Is that fair?  Certainly when work was started on it, it wasn’t intended to save the company, only carry on a the Palm tradition.  Could we see Palm drop an Android phone?  Would anyone care?

Palm is in a tough spot.  I theorized last week that HTC might have some interest in picking them up on the cheap and that maybe the only thing that lies ahead: be bought or die.

Read: [cnet] and [wsj]

Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

Still remember the Asus 12-inch Bamboo laptop that we mentioned last year? The pricing for the 12 inch version of this bamboo laptop has been unveiled. The notebook will go on sale at Taiwan’s IT Month exhibition on Saturday for around $1,800. Sadly, there is no further info about the specs. [Yahoo Tech via Laptop Notebook News]

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The Samsung Gravity (model SGH-t459) is a new side-sliding QWERTY handset available exclusively at T-Mobile for $49.99 after an online instant discount of $100 dollars and a mail-in-rebate of $50 dollars. The Gravity features a full QWERTY keyboard making it an ideal messaging handset for AOL, ICQ, Yahoo, and MSN IM, as well as mobile email, SMS, and MMS.

Key features of the Gravity include:

• Pull out QWERTY keyboard
• Aqua with white or Lime with Gray finish
• 1.3 megapixel camera/camcorder
• Web-enabled 
• Multiple messaging options (text messaging, picture messaging, video messaging)
• Built-in email clients including AOL, AIM and Yahoo! as well as easy access to popular POP3 email such as Gmail
• AOL, ICQ, Windows Live, and Yahoo! Instant Messenger
• Bluetooth wireless technology
• microSD (up to 4 GB) expansion memory
• Advanced speech recognition
• Music and video player
• Speakerphone
• Personal organizer (calendar, calculator, currency converter, notepad, to-do list)
• Measures 4.53” x 2.07” x 0.70” and weighs 4.3 ounces
• Display: 176 x 220 Pixels, 262K TFT 
• Internal memory: 60MB
• Standard Lithium Ion Battery: up to 6 hours usage time; or up to 300 hours standby time

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Samsung SGH-t459, Samsung Gravity, T-Mobile

Section: Video, HDTV, Web, Web Apps, Websites, Online Music/Video

Sony announced they’ve added some new partners for their connected Bravia TVs.  These TVs, when hooked up to broadband, bring the net experience to your living room.  Sony is doing this in an extremely controlled fashion.

How controlled?  One at a time, baby.  That is right: they added CBS which uses Flash 10 for content, as does Hulu but Sony does not have a partnership with them.  You’ll have access to their partners via a special link, not a browser.  Curious?

Of course you are!  So was I.  So I asked Sony and got:

We don’t disclose software for the device.  Sony works with each content partner to provide the best user experience possible.  The CBS channel was developed exclusively for the Sony BRAVIA Internet Video service and is not in any way affiliated with other services or devices like Hulu.

Current partners include Slacker, Amazon Video On Demand, YouTube, Dailymotion, CBS; Yahoo!, Men.Style.com, Sports Illustrated, blip.tv, CondeNet’s Style.com, Epicurious, Wired.com, Concierge.com channels, Sony Pictures’ Crackle, and more.  Big brands are getting into this.

This raises some serious questions in my head.  Questions like:

• Could a Hulu partnership be in the works?
 
• Who else might be included in this partnership
• Could Sony be charting a new course forward by cutting out local affiliates and bringing content straight from there studios to their TVs?
• Would it mean big trouble for the likes of cable companies?  Would Sony care?

If you’ve got any answers, let’s talk about them in the comments.

Source [ecoustics]

Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »