Since 3D filming was created the only way to marvel at the spectacle was to go to the cinema and pay extra for the pleasure. At the moment, Ice Age 3D is about as close as you’ll get to the 3D experience. However, recently huge advancements have been made such as Fujifilm announcing the world first consumer 3D digital camera. Now, Sky TV in the UK say that they will be offering Europe’s first ever 3D TV service by next year.
“In the next step in the Sky+HD journey, Sky today announced that it will launch the UK’s first 3D channel next year,” said Sky in a press release
“The service will be broadcast across Sky’s existing HD infrastructure and be available via the current generation of Sky+HD set-top boxes.” This is good news as the UK has just undergone a massive nationwide digital switchover and people having to change their set-top boxes all over again would anger some.
However, those wanting to enjoy 3D films, entertainment and sport will have to change their TV for a 3D ready TV. These are expected from large companies such as Panasonic and will be on sale in 2010 to coincide with the launch of the 3D service.
“3D is a genuinely ‘seeing is believing’ experience, making TV come to life as never before. Just like the launch of digital, Sky+ and HD, this is latest step in our commitment to innovating for customers.” said Sky.
Right, those of you who read my twitter will know that I’ve decided it’s time to get into shape. I’m by no means obese. However I would like to be able to jog for five minutes without needing to stop ten times for ten-minute breaks.
I put some good play lists on my Mp3, dug the tracky bottoms out of the wardrobe (oh, the shame) and put on the stopwatch. Then it dawned on me – I don’t know the first thing about getting fit. Therefore, I did what anyone in their right mind would do – I Googled.
After sifting through dozens of brutal websites, I came across a few military style sites when it clicked – surely, armies across the world must have SOMETHING! This article is a list of the top three Army websites of real world militaries about getting fit. These cool web apps and videos will hopefully have me in ship shape in no time.
1. The Royal Commandos: This section of their website is dedicated to getting you fit in a short space of time in order to gain entry to them. There are tons of videos showing you how to do the exercises properly, what you should eat and what makes a good schedule. Because it’s from one of the world best fighting forces where physical fitness is of top priority during training, you know you’re not getting the wimpy approach. Easy to use and tones of information on there.
2. 62nd Infantry .com – This is an unofficial website run by the 62nd Infantry Battalion of the Irish Reserve Defense Forces. It focuses less on interactive features and more on the training side of things, which I liked. There are charts to figure out your BMI, motivation techniques, goals and targets. Although this is aimed at meeting fitness levels to gain entry for training, it can be used by the average Joe to shed the pounds.
3. Canadian Army. This site doesn’t go into to much detail like the previous two sites, but it does give you some good step-by-step instructions and some goals for joining which you can use as personal targets.
Now, I’m off for a jog.
I’m liking where this new trend of watered-down smart phones is going. Let’s face it. Not all of us want to or indeed can spend a week’s pay on a new smart phone such as the new Nokia N97. Yet many of us still want the cool features such as the touch-screen, 3G and entertainment. Now, many phone makers are slimming down their flagship models to make more affordable compromises for the average Joe.
Samsung did a great job slimming the Tocco down to the Tocco Lite. Now, there are rumours buzzing around the Nokia may have done the same with their new N97 Smartphone.
Pictures, which were nabbed by Engadget show what is being called the N97 Mini. The Picture shows a smaller N97(perhaps around 20-25% smaller) next to its bigger brother. It appears as through the D-Pad has been moved, along with smaller keys grouped closer together.
I’d much prefer to have the Mini rather than the original as long as it still had 3G. Sure I’d be making a cut back in performance and screen size but hey, it’s a recession out there!
Nokia haven’t said much except for just hmm and ahh at these pictures. These rumours were reportedly first uttered by a Vodafone employee on a forum earlier this week. If they are true, we’re in for one heck of a cool phone. But then, this could just be some cheap Chinese knock-off that looks like the N97.
Pirate Bay, a site that “helps users commit copyright infringement’ is now under more heavy fire than ever with ruling made by a Dutch court ordering all access to the site be shut off in the Netherlands within the next ten days.
The case was made against the sites three founders who were not even present, nor aware of the proceedings. When they found they sent a letter to have the ruling dismissed as they are currently seeking to make an appeal.
As it stands, if they do not comply with the ruling and remove all access to the site in Holland
within the next ten days then the company will be fined three million Euros. They will also be fined 30,000 Euro for
every day that the site remains up and running in the Netherlands.
In April, the three owners, Fredrik Neij, Peter Sunde, and Gottfrid Svartholm Warg along with a financer in Sweden were ordered to pay around 3 million in damages to various production companies and were to serve a year behind bars. Currently, a company called Global Gaming Factory has plans to buy Pirate Bay, which is only adding to the pandemonium.
For those of you who read Crenk on a daily basis or are even subscribed, you will have read my post yesterday about the Russians thinking of pulling VoIP programs such as Google Voice and Skype. This was because of competition. However, it seems as though across the Atlantic the story is much the same.
Google Voice has an application for the iPhone called GV Mobile and, until recently it was available on the Apple iStore. Apple removed the application along with several other similar ones over the past two days. Their reason for this was that it was too similar to features already on the iPhone. Whilst they did not go into any further detail I suspect that it was the voice and SMS features.
I also suspect that it was AT&T who were putting pressure on them because Google voice was taking away some of their income as Google Voice allows cheap calls and texts from the iPhone.
They called the developer of the application Sean Kovacs and told him that his application was being removed from the iStore. This is what he wrote on his blog yesterday
“Richard Chipman from Apple just called – he told me they’re removing GV Mobile from the App Store due to it
duplicating features that the iPhone comes with (Dialer, SMS, etc). He didn’t actually specify which features, although I assume the whole app in general. He wouldn’t send a confirmation email either – too scared I would post it. I’ll see what I can do to get it back up there gang…”
I guess the friendly face of Apple as concerns the iPhone is just that – a face. By demonstrating such tight control over the apps available and by not even giving good reasons as for removing apps, they could easily drive customers away to other networks and smart phones, where apps are in abundance.
So you want an app, where do you go? The Apple App Store of Course. It’s been running now for a little over a year and there has already been over 50,000 apps added with over one billion downloads. Without any shred of doubt, it’s the market leader in the app world. However, now, Verizon have announced that they too will be launching an App store in the fourth quarter of this year to compete with Apple.
They, in the past, have been criticized for blocking certain apps and having limited selections for their phones. They have indeed seen the error of their ways. Speaking at their first ever developers conference in San Jose, California.
“It’s a new day (in wireless),” McAdam, Verizon CEO said in the opening address of the developer conference which was also Webcast. “And our future success is no longer in the walled-garden. Our success is tied to you (developers).
This would make for a nice touch to the current Verizon services. By giving users an app store you’re giving them one more reason to stay with you rather than search for greener pastures. I can’t see there being as many apps as the Apple App Store simply because Verizon don’t have the same kind of image that Apple has –sleek, cool and ultra-modern. However, their users will most certainly be impressed. Let’s hope us critics are too when it launches. Keep checking Crenk for updates on this story.
A whopping 67% of us ‘Google’ things. If we want to know something we simply ’Google it’, as it has become known. Like any good online company, their name is also a verb. Just like Twitter with Tweet. They have a hug share of the market – undoubtedly. Now however, they may have their first real competitor in years.
Anyone remember last year when Microsoft was trying to buy Yahoo! for almost 50 Billion dollars? It went down in flames. But the inter-company relationship didn’t end. Now, they’re discussing a possible collaboration between the two search engines –Bing (Microsoft) and Yahoo!.
If this were to go ahead then it would offer a chunk of healthy competition to the dominant Google. The news storyalone would send thousands flocking, to give it a whirl – but Yahoo and Microsoft better be careful.
People like their search engine. For me, its been Yahoo! imply because I like a bit of news before I search and also because it was the first search engine I ever used so I just kind of stuck with it. People don’t like change – and when they do change they don’t want to be insulted by too many sponsored results like over at Ask.com or search results that make them want to ‘Google’ .
It’s impossible to tell what the end result would be from this mutation of search engines. Would it be Yahoo!, powered by Bing or the other way around? They do have a plan to split the revenue between them but what about the work load such as PR, development and staffing the site. Now might not be a good time to invest in any search engine as there’s going to be a war, with casualties. I’ll wait until the final few blows before I put my money on one of them.
I’m starting to see a pattern here, readers. Every single day I find myself typing one post about having been tweeting from another Twitter App or a new Twitter service of some sort – if it keeps going at this rate, I’ll go insane and start making fifteen posts per day about Twitter. But I can understand why – Twitter rules. Blogs were so 2007.
This time it’s the turn of TuneIn to really jump on the Twitter bandwagon. The have just secured a massive investment of no less than half a million dollars from True Ventures to build upon their existing site which was launched just a few short weeks ago.
At this current point in time they offer the basic tweeting service but that is where the similarities end, full stop. They describe themselves as a highly visual media dashboard that will transform your Twitter experience. They organize other tweets from your network of followers and those you’re following into categories of the most active/popular amongst the users. It will also let you keep an eye on media and sites that are linked to your network.
According to TuneIn, this is but the tip of the iceberg. As a result of getting such a massive amount of money from True Ventures, there is certainly a lot more heading our way said Adam Hertz, the founder of InTune.
When the Apple iPhone came out there was a massive rush onto the AT&T Network in the US. Now that everything is calming down a little and the world is used to the idea of the iPhone, the other main networks in the US, Verizon and Sprint are at each others throats.
Sprints CEO, Dan Hesse shot down claims by Verizon that Verizon would be getting the Palm Pre sooner than expected. Sprints CEO, who was due to launch the device the next day on his network made firm comments about their exclusivity deal concerning the Palm Pre phone.
He said that “they need to check their facts” and “That just is not the case. Both Palm and Sprint have agreed not to discuss the length of the exclusivity deal. But I can tell you it’s not six months.”
If Verizon go ahead with their aspirations to have the Palm Pre on their network by 2010 then indeed it won’t be six months. It will be seven.
It should come as no huge shock because both carries operate using the same technology and thus they both are ideal to carry the Palm Pre which is seen as one of the main competitors to Apple’s iPhone in the US.
However, I think that Sprint really does need this phone on their network. Thy have developed a bad reputation for poor quality service and bad connections and have worked tirelessly to fix the problem. This phone could be their one shining light. Hesse said “We are very different company than we were 12 months ago,”. “And the Pre is the coming-out party for the new Sprint that shows off our fantastic data network and rate plans.”
“I’m not a blogger. I just tweet a lot”.
It’s true. I’m not a blogger and I do tweet a lot. That’s why I’m about to place an order for a t-shirt that says exactly that from Threadless.com. They have just opened up a new twitter branch of their website that takes popular, funny and strange tweets and makes t-shirts out of them. Pretty cool ones I might add.
Basically, people submit tweets to them or they find the tweets. If they think they’re funny or interesting they’ll make a cool t-shirt out of them. The price of a t-shirt is $18 before shipping and their available in sizes from small to Extra Extra Large for our small or large tweeters. They’re also available in both man and women sizes.
I think it’s a cool idea. There are hundreds and thousands of people using Twitter every singe day and I’m sure that a proportion of them are as nerdy as me and as such will see it fit to buy several T-Shirts that say “140 is the new 420”.
There is also a chance to make some cash. If you nominate a tweet that gets printed you can get your hands on $140. Furthermore, if you submit your own tweet that gets printed you will make $500. Not bad for a little bit of tweeting. Below are a couple of my favourite tees I seen at Threadless.
