As you know, the moment that Kindle appeared in the market, the e-readers are getting a lot of attention from companies and users. And the iPad is not an exception, there are a lot of projects involved to develop some interesting features to transform it in a Kindle competitor; but I guess none of them compared with Penguin project.
In this video you can check it out:
You’ll get some nice games for your kids, and an amazing coloring book options. Working with the human body in an anatomy section; a travelling guide; and also “Star Finder” an encyclopedia of the solar system and universe.
One of the strangest options is the “Vampire Academy” that represents a vampire novel that includes a live chat. Not sure if this one will make any difference.
Melodeo today announced the next generation of nuTsie, its industry-leading cloud-based music platform. This major advance in the platform delivers the full iPod™ experience to any connected device plus significant improvements, including wireless syncing, smart caching and unlimited new music discovery. The new nuTsie platform is currently being made available as embeddable software to mobile carriers, mobile device manufacturers and others eager to provide a solution for the 400 million-plus consumers who currently manage their media in iTunes™ and want to be able to access that media anytime, anywhere.
This major upgrade of the nuTsie platform enables any connected device – mobile phone, netbook, laptop, game console, e-book reader, set-top box or other – to function like an iPod™. Just as on an iPod™, users can access any music as organized in their iTunes™ library, including their playlists and single-song play with full user control.
As a cloud-based platform, this version of nuTsie also offers three key additional features that significantly improve on the iPod experience: wireless syncing with the user’s iTunes™ library, smart caching that solves device storage limit problems and unlimited full-track new music discovery.
The nuTsie cloud-based platform continuously and automatically syncs with the user’s iTunes™ library – no cable required. When new material is added to the user’s iTunes™ library on their PC or Mac, that material automatically shows up on nuTsie on other connected devices.
Because the media is stored in the cloud, the new nuTsie platform solves the problem of device storage limitations, a significant barrier on mobile phones with limited memory capacity. The nuTsie cloud platform features a proprietary smart caching algorithm that optimizes storage on a user’s device to ensure that the user’s most popular content is always stored on the device.
nuTsie also delivers unlimited, full-track music discovery in two flavors of personalized radio. Users can access nuTsie’s popular Top 100s playlists, as featured at nuTsie.com and in nuTsie’s iPhone apps. New music can also be accessed through nuTsie’s exclusive recommendation engine, as featured in the recently-launched Effin GeniusiPhone app, which analyzes the user’s music library and uses that information plus billions of points of data nuTsie has collected from iTunes™ libraries to generate new playlists.
“We’ve put all of your music plus unlimited new music in the cloud, where you can get it anytime, anywhere,” said Melodeo CEO Jim Billmaier. “We’ve heard again and again that this is what consumers want, and this next generation of our platform delivers. And this isn’t just about music – our service will extend to video, podcasts, e-books and other media.”
This next generation of the nuTsie platform extends Melodeo’s advantage as the industry-leading cloud-based music solution. nuTsie.comand the flagship nuTsie mobile appalready allow users to access their own music in an iPod Shuffle™-like experience and to stream unlimited new music on any network-connected device. nuTsie is also the #1 seller of music listening appsin the iPhone™ App Store. nuTsie’s success has enabled Melodeo to reach and sustain profitability in 2009 and into 2010.
There just doesn’t seem to be enough storage for all of our needs these days. At the rate we’re downloading purchases from audio and video sites, the rate we’re producing content with access to video creators, web cams, and more, storage seems to be a very valued commodity these days. Most of us rely on what our systems come with, then perhaps turning to cloud storage for a few things, but ultimately a lot of us have external hard drives to store our information off the main system. As much as I love the Drobo, that’s just a huge expense that I’m not sure I want to drop right now. If you’re looking for something simple with lightning fast connectivity, then look no further than the WD My Book 3.0.
Imeem fans the world over were befuddled when one day their third party apps did not work. A run to imeem’s website produced the same results. There was nothing, nada, zilch, zero, just up and gone in the night.
Thanks to the purchase by MySpace, imeem was a short lived program that never quite got its stride, and when it was starting to gain in popularity it was bought out and axed by MySpace. Specifically the third party developers were sent scrambling to recover their business models when the axe fell. MySpace gave no warning, there was no expectation or nice letter saying that it was dropping immediate support until a later time, it just simply pulled the plug.
The vacuum, long an instrument for chasing cats, has now been turned against its own. What better use for automatic home appliances than to have them chase each other in classic video game style?
Five Roomba vacuum robots and a software, originally developed to control unmanned aerial systems is all some dudes from the University of Colorado needed to create a quite unusual Pac-Man clone.
Tweetie is the most successful app for the iPhone when it comes to Twitter. Almost a quarter of the tweets I read say ‘from Tweetie’ underneath indicating that the tweeter is using the popular app.
A few months back, a new kid on the block called Birdfeed was released and it definitely made some waves. However I think user loyalty took precedence and people stayed with Tweetie. However, the other day an updated version of Birdfeed was submitted to the app store for approval.
This version aims to fight tooth and nail with Tweetie using Twitter’s upcoming geolocation feature as its main weapon. The geolocation feature will allow you to post your current location along with your regular Tweet. Although Tweetie will also have this integrated, Birdfeed is making it its headline feature but putting the Geolocation entry box along the top of the screen as opposed to Tweetie whereby one must go through a menu to bring it up.
There will also be mapping of the Tweet’s location so users can click on your Tweet and view your location.
Even listened to the radio on your phone while you’re on the bus or just relaxing in the park – sometime it can get a bit boring. Especially for us geeky types who love to know what going on all over the world in the tech biz.
Well I found a cool app for your cell phone that may fix the problem.
Virtual Radio is a cool Java app for you Java enabled cell phone that allows you to listen to Internet radio stations in crisp high quality sound. The have lowered the frequency to 32kbps for the Java version so your GPRS connection can keep up with the content.
There are loads of different channels to choose from depending on where you’re located. You can also reprogram the tuner to play your favourite channels or simply find new ones.
The best this is that it’s completely free to download and use. One piece of advice that I’ll give you is to watch out for the GPRS costs. However, nowadays most network have deals on GPRS internet such 99c per day for unlimited usage or a set fee every month.
Reading a great article from NY Times about drivers and texting messages got me thinking about some of the obvious and wrong things that happens in our lives and we choose to ignore them. The article refers to what I think it’s an important news for Utah’s citizens: Texting behind the wheel can take up to 15 years of prison. Sounds too much for you? Too little?
Here’s an important part of the article: “The new law, which took effect in May, penalizes a texting driver who causes a fatality as harshly as a drunken driver who kills someone. In effect, a crash caused by such a multitasking motorist is no longer considered an “accident” like one caused by a driver who, say, runs into another car because he nodded off at the wheel. Instead, such a crash would now be considered inherently reckless.
“It’s a willful act,” said Lyle Hillyard, a Republican state senator and a big supporter of the new measure. “If you choose to drink and drive or if you choose to text and drive, you’re assuming the same risk.”
I really like the last phrase, if you choose to text and drive you are assuming the risk. Isn’t that the real problem? People that do not take full responsibilities about their own acts? If you decide to text while you are driving, how can you be absolutely certain that you are not causing and accident? Are you decided to bet your life on it?
Also the NY Times posted a video about this topic, the distracted drivers and the common behaviors. That includes a small review for a research made by a Utah university, simulations about driving and texting and how and where do they focus while they are doing these tasks all together.
The law sounds great for me, but if you start thinking about it, you will find several legal holes in it, the most important one: You can easily detect drunken drivers with a breath analyzer, but how can you detect a texting driver? Also the law doesn’t say anything about calling during driving nor using other devices, like GPS.
What do you think? Do you think that these accidents should not be consider as such since you can prevent them?
Over the last few weeks there has been a lot of attention focused on the new Spotify iPhone application which has already been submitted to iTunes. Spotify is leading the way in several European markets at the moment for music streaming, however Grooveshark has been making waves in other markets as their web app is available worldwide. Grooveshark themselves have been developing their own iPhone application which is just about to be submitted to iTunes.
We were lucky enough to receive a copy of the Grooveshark iphone application before release so that we could play around with it. Like Spotify the Grooveshark application lets you search and find pretty much any music, and then provides the ability to create playlists and keep track of your own favourites. The iphone application has a very slick interface and keeps with the overall design which is found on Grooveshark.com. Music is streamed from wireless internet connect, but it doesnt really stream fast enough for my liking, but that is probably more because of the iphone’s capabilities instead of the application.
Grooveshark also keeps track of what kind of music you like and suggests artists and music that you might enjoy. It is great to see the simplicity of this iphone application with a very nice design. The Spotify iphone application will only be available to subscription based users, thus it would be great to see Grooveshark offer this application as a free download and really grab a strong marketshare. However, I know that Grooveshark are trying to work out their own subscription service in which eventually might include this iphone application.
With the release of the Palm Pre not even a month ago, the biggest attraction in the earlier stages was the ability to run multiple apps in the background as you navigate your device. Chances are, people are using their mobile devices much like they use their desktops or laptops, with multiple applications open, cross referencing their needs and multi-tasking as necessary. This functionality has escaped most mobile devices until the Palm Pre really focused on this ability in its new handheld device.
Is it the best execution, perhaps not, but it’s a step in the right direction!
Those using the iPhone have long griped over the lack of push apps and the ability to run apps in the background. While there is no sign of any progress on the background app idea, there seems to be more development in the “push” sector.
After reading TechCrunch’s article on how AIM for iPhone is coming out with push support, it’s noticable that more apps in the future will be offering push support to allow users to still get their messages, emails, and updates without actually having the app open.
Is this long overdue? Perhaps. Is this a suitable replacement for the lack of apps running in the background? Probably not.
What are your thoughts? What apps do you use that you wish has push functionality?
Channel 9 published a few days ago a very cool set of videos with a great summary of the history of Microsoft. Most of them are videos shorter than 10 minutes with a quick look to all the main events that built that company.
It is amazing to see how two teenagers with small idea, a program called BASIC and big ambitions made the most powerful company in the world.
I know, there are different versions about the actual ownership of the original program and the idea, some say that Bill Gates stoled the idea to other students, some says that they bought the program… still, you need more than an idea or a incredible program to build an empire.
Melodeo today announced the next generation of 
There just doesn’t seem to be enough storage for all of our needs these days. At the rate we’re downloading purchases from audio and video sites, the rate we’re producing content with access to video creators, web cams, and more, storage seems to be a very valued commodity these days. Most of us rely on what our systems come with, then perhaps turning to cloud storage for a few things, but ultimately a lot of us have external hard drives to store our information off the main system. As much as I love the 
Imeem fans the world over were befuddled when one day their third party apps did not work. A run to imeem’s website produced the same results. There was nothing, nada, zilch, zero, just up and gone in the night.
Channel 9
