Archive for: cool
The Blog Herald created a very interesting infographic summarizing the entire history of one of the oldest tools in Internet history: E-Mail.
In this infographic we can find several facts about e-mail, for example:
- 2 billion e-mails are sent every day.
- Brazil is the number one country for spams generation with 7.7 trillion (yes, trillions!) spams sent every year.
- There are around 1.3 billion e-mail users.
- The average size of an e-mail is 75KB.
- The @ symbol was included in keyboards in 1885, but the first original use for this character was in 1971 when Tomlinson used it as the division within the first e-mail sent.
Take a look to the complete infographic here:
Adidas Superstars represents one of the most popular models of the German company; and also is one of the most used today as vintage models of shoes. And now, for their 35 anniversary, they are preparing the Facebook and Twitter models.
Honestly I’m not quite convinced about all the “Facebook” included in this model, sounds a bit too much. On the inside they’ve also included the following “Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you” and “Making the world open and connected”.
The Twitter model seems a bit better; they’ve included the Twitter bird logo and the original color used by the micro-blogging web app.
Who among us could say that does not love retro designs? I sure can’t get enough of any retro looking thingy. Of course, having a nice a professional design is everything; that’s why 1stwebdesigner developed 100 retro wallpapers with high quality.
We can find “standard” resolution wallpapers from 1280×800, up to some high quality ones with 2560×2048. Make your pick here.
I was sceptical when I first heard about this new web app. The ability to track airplanes in real-time? Surely it would only track a handful, have plenty of bugs and not live up to expectation at all. I was wring.
Casper, which is set up as a demo on the website, shows you the movements of all airplanes coming and going from Schiphol airport in the Netherlands and flights over Dutch airspace. However, the program can be calibrated for any airport using an ADS-B receiver which can be bought from many hobby shops and online. The program will then interpret this information and display all flights relating to that airport. You could do this yourself at home.
The program is really light weight as it uses Google Maps to run and works really well. This is definitely a great app for all aviation enthusiasts and those interested in a little bit of fun.
The Internet has pretty much revolutionised fitness and healthy living. It has both busted many myths and crated some. With all the crosswinds of information available, an inevitable vortex has been created leading to a lot of confusion. Most people don’t know how many carbohydrates they should take in or why. Well SimpleFit is a new web app which aims to change all that in a simple, minimalistic way.
Firstly, you tell the app what kind of routine you’re looking for and in put some information about yourself. It will then churn out a fitness plan which is quite basic at the start and increases in its difficulty as the weeks and months progress. You can see a sample one below.
You are encouraged to log into the service to record your achievements and workouts and also to see what lies ahead for you the next day. All of your results and stats are recorded on the site and can be viewed in numerous forms such as graphically below.
For anyone trying other fitness apps which don’t seem to be working out, you should give SimpleFit a go to see if simplicity works for you.
News is spreading that the most popular netbook creator, Asus, will be launching three new Eee PC netbooks at CeBIT next week in Germany. The three new machines are said to be 10 inch screen models and have some exciting features.
For one thing, 14 hours is rumoured to be the battery life of one of the business models and will have an aluminium chassis with a brushed effect as seen above. Another model will have some premium features such as a fingerprint reader for increased security and will be the thinnest netbook Asus has ever created. USB 3.0 will also be standard on the netbooks.
Finally, matt displays and wider touchpads are the order of the day over at Asus.
I for one am becoming more and more fond of netbooks. They fill the gap between smart phone and laptop to keep us happy on the train or just act as a backup. What OS these new machines will be running is sill to be announced. More next week when we get some more information from CeBIT.
Many of us work well under pressure. When I’m doing a long article I can often find myself procrastinating, staring into space and only working sporadically. Using a stopwatch is one of my favourite ways to boost my productivity and motivate myself to get the first draft done within a certain amount of time.
TimeMe is a huge online stopwatch which I have displayed on my second monitor as a constant reminder that the clock is ticking. It pretty much takes up the whole screen along with some basic settings. Users may also adjust timer display (size, colour, width) and sound alarm settings to fit their needs. Simple yet effective.
This is a similar tool to E.ggtimer and the likes.
However, they also offer a downloadable versions so you can run it on your desktop if you don’t like connecting to the web when working or studying. Check it out here.
We’re entering an age where robots are beginning to think and act for themselves. Many have even become celebrities such as ASIMO. Programming is no longer necessary for them to do every little task. They can learn. And now, apparently, they can teach.
The South Korean government has announced its plans for robots to being teaching in pre-school classed by 2012. They won’t be the sole teacher just yet. However, the robots will be responsible for things such as reciting stories and even acting as a portal into the class room so parents can check up on their kids.
This will start off as a trial and if it proves successful they will expand the program and bump it up to Kindergarten level also.
I think it will be many years until it advances further though. At the moment, robots can only act a a supplement or a teacher for the most basic and least interactive of tasks and need human guidance. Crucial tasks such as helping kids with their problems and teaching new material to children can only be done by trained professionals.
There’s nothing more depressing for a gadget guru than to pick up favourite camera or media player etc… and have it lay dead in the palm of his hand. Diagnosis? A dead battery. Bummer.
It’s really been a given for the past century. Batteries waste. Sure the Duracell bunnies would have us believe otherwise but they do. Even rechargeable batteries which can be found in everything from cameras to electric scooters can die due to being worn out. However, that’s all about to change. A new type of lithium-ion rechargeable battery has been introduced which is said to last over twenty years (around 10,000 charges). Now that’s value for money.
A Japanese company by the name of Eamex have cured the cause (<– link requires a subscription to read) of batteries burning out. With normal rechargeable batteries, the negative electrode deteriorates over use. This new design aims to coat the negative terminal in a special protective film (tin coated resin) which will protect it. This will last a regular user over twenty years.
So in theory, you could have five or six digital cameras but only one pair of batteries! Pretty cool. Expect to see these new batteries later this year.
Last year, I reported that the 3D home entertainment trend was on the up. Recession or no recession, it’s coming. The latest development in this tantalising three dimensional tale is the release of HDMI 3D glasses for use at home with a 3D TV.
Whether you’re a fan of wearing weird glasses while watching TV or not, you’re going to be happy with this next piece of new: there isn’t going to be much bickering between the companies about format issues. When almost any new development is made in the tech industry, each company almost always seems to choose its own format. That way, they hop to gain loyalty and crush the others. One wins, a lot loose. And of course eventually we’re left with one format. This time though, they;re doing things differently. They’ll all be going with the active shutter glasses which you can see in the picture.
The ones above are geared up for HDMI 1.4 and will be compatible with future updates to HDMI technology. So 3D is coming, prepare to be either dazzled or extremely annoyed.
