Apple has registered a patent for a 3D desktop. On such a desktop a folder has become a folder that falls open and in which documents stand next and behind each other.
The strength isn’t in this one concept. It’s in screen that react your head too. So that you can look ‘a little further’. Then you won’t need a mouse either.
Scientists have discovered that sheets with carbon nanotubes, tubes of carbon atoms rolled up as wire on nanoscale, can make sound. The sheets are so thin that they can be transparent, and in principle very big. When such a sheet is put over a (flexible) screen the sound can literally come from all directions and the screen is made (a lot) lighter.
Eventually screens will be holes in the wall, with a view to whatever world you wish. The sound will come from exactly where you think it’ll come. This discovery brings this situation a little closer.
Scientists have succeeded in adding four extra base pares to DNA. Of course DNA consists of four base pairs, that make up the genetic code. This is the basis of all life on earth. Now, Masahiko Inouye and his colleagues of the University of Toyoma, Japan have developed four new artificial base pairs (Journal of the American Chemical Society, DOI: 10.1021/ja801058h). The plan is to research how this artificial DNA can replicate itself.
We’re recreating life. We’re researching how we can develop new life that’ll assist us in all kinds of ways, that’ll help humanity along, on the most fundamental level. Because we’re not doing this kind of research for fun. When in 2050 the time of the robots will be behind us again, how can completely new life forms help us get further? What can new life forms do that robots can’t? And it has to be something that no organism on earth can do now. Green people that turn sunlight into oxygen aren’t part of this for example. We can make that by combining existing codes. But it is about physical life (and not on spiritual/energy level) that can replicate itself. Gaseous life that cleans the air? Self-expanding space-shields that life on energy in space and which we can use to travel through time? Self-repairing metal (useful for robots, no?) If anyone has a suggestion…
Dutch vehicle owners can now log in (with their unique code for the Dutch government: DigiD) on the RDW (official governmental vehicle registration) through MijnOverheid.nl and see for which vehicles they're responsible. They can see the technical data, insurance, year, date of the first license plate and the validity of the vehicle inspection.
We’ll be shown everything that’s been recorded about us. Currently as a nice gesture, but later it’ll be recorded in the law. In a next step we can give others access, so that, for example, a garage can keep the maintenance book up-to-date online and can have the car pass the inspection immediately. Or can connect to the car, for example to install the latest software update of the navigation software. Or we can transfer the car from the sale. And of course that can also be done mobile, so that we take care of this standing by the car. It’s all heading in that direction.
Over 50% of the Dutch populations says they cut back on magazines and papers. This goes for both subscriptions as loose sales. Respectively 49% and 44% says they spend less on gaming and cinemas in a recession. This has been determined by a survey of Z'Insights, the researchunit of ZenithOptimedia Nederland, held under 413 Dutch people. People will hardly cut back on classic media television and radio. This won't be true for subscriptions to 'paid tv stations': 36% says they cut back on getting or renewing a subscription.
We’re slowly breaking the economy down to a world in which we pay nothing for media. The recession is the final nail in this process. Then we’ll build up a new world in which the consumer is helped personally to be kept involved with the society, to move across the world freely and safely, or to be entertained. We’ll pay (a lot of money) for these personal services. Apparently we first have to break down the existing models for this, then realise that quality, objectivity and availability are important and then start paying for it again.
To help the consumer make a choice for a specific product, Dutch comparison site Beslist now offers over 18,000 preselected video reviews, beside the comments of users (70,000) and experts (100,000).
Everything is becoming image. Text will disappear. Completely. The dialogue will become image and sound. It can’t get more intuitive than that.
Webstore Plemix is animated its favicon (the icon that appears in your browser when you mask a page as a favourite). On opening the page, the mini-logo scrolls away and makes room for the word 'Plemix'.
Logos, favicons, nothing remains static. Brands are learning that small, subtle movements draw our attention. Furthermore later (when more design has been added) the brand personality can be transferred. Even in the favicon. Because even a dot that moves in a special way can carry personality.
By plugging a small adapter in the iPhone's headphone plug and installing the application UIRemote an infrared signal is sent which can control any device in the house.
Remote controls will disappear. This is the first stop. After that, screens will become interactive: we can make choices on our cell phone to operate, for example, the tv. But it’ll become even more interesting around that time: the tv’s content will be transmitting signals too. We can choose our own programs and, more importantly, the programs react to what we do. This makes tv truly interactive, outside the stations’ involvement.
Fanta 3d Virtual Tennis is a game which uses your cell phone's camera and image recognition. On Fanta.eu the user can download the playing field. Then you can play by aiming the camera at the field. The tennis balls seem to come straight at you. The game can be played on the following Nokias: N82, N95, N95-3NAM, N95-8GB, 6120 Classic, 6121 Classic, N81 en N81 8GB. See the video or download the application on www.fanta.eu (or through your mobile browser: http://m.fanta.eu).
Brands are developing 3d worlds. Not just for the PC, but especially for the cell phone. In time each screen will have built-in cameras and all screens will respond to your movements, with multiple screens at a time, to portray the brand world in the best possible way, to make the experience as real as possible. Then the graphics will become photorealistic and this’ll be child’s play.
Social network MySpace is working together with video content producer Endemol on a new show in which the social network organises the preparations for a wedding. The social reality show will count 13 episodes and is called 'Get Married on MySpace'.
Different couples can sign up, and the network will vote for their favourite couple. It doesn't stop there, however: the network can –- after selecting their favourite couple -- make the most important decisions. The dress, the wedding location, everything is decided by the MySpace-visitor.
The last episode will be devoted to the wedding ceremony and can be watched live on MySpace.
Social coaching brands are looking for added value that fits with their future function: bringing and keeping people together. So not selling music, vacation reviews or gadgets, but focusing solely on maintaining relationships. This exactly fits in this completely.
LG has developed a chip for cell phones, based on the 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard. With this it's possible to download with a speed of 100Mbps and to upload with 50Mbps. Currently the highest possible speed for mobile internet is still at 7.6Mbps. So it's going to be 13x as fast.
With the chip we don’t just connect cell phones, but all screens, so that we can use portable screens to game on the camping, listen to all radio stations in the world and call at the same time. It seems like a luxury to us, but the biggest revolution will take place in underdeveloped countries where suddenly remote regions will be connected.
IClockRadio turns your iPhone into a clock radio. You can listen to a good 100 radio stations with your iPhone. iClockRadio functions as a clock which, at a set tme, will automatically start to play a radio station. With this, iClockRadio adds 2-in-1 functions to the iPhone, since the iPhone itself doesn't have an FM-receiver or digital radiotuner. iClockRadio uses the mobile internet for the radio-reception. Very unique is that reception is also possible on the older, first generation iPhone, using GPRS (3G/UMTS-reach is not a necessity).
General disadvantage of this kind of data-eating applications (streaming music) are the still high roaming tariffs, making the use abroad limited for the time being.
We’ll do everything on every screen. Calling on tv, gaming on the cell, listening to radio on the navigation system and internetting on our game console. Each screen will become a window to 1 virtual world and this is a nice example of it.
Facebook is now available on the Xperia™ X1 phone of Sony Ericsson. On this photos of your friends will integrate on the desktop of your phone (standby-screen), you can see their latest status changes if you touch the pictures and you get more options if you touch them again, including calling them. Furthermore you can quickly upload photos to Facebook. The Facebook panels can be downloaded for free using the built-in download function of the smartphone or from the Sony Ericsson website (choose 'Panels')
Personal media connects to what’s closest to people: friends, family, warm relationships. Currently it’s useful to call with 1 click, but later on you can say that you’d like to be called only by friends, or by friends of friends. That brands still want to call too, that’s their problem. All brands we trust get a separate rule and can call us on occasion. And brands like Facebook, social coaching brands in the making, are at the gate to remove their unwanted behaviour (permanently). It won’t be long now.
As known, I'm spending a few months in Australia to prepare my emigration in September. I'm all alone, without partner sniff, but the good thing is that you're completely immersed in Australian culture. A few differences I've noticed...
For Wall-E, Disney's new DVD movie, a print advertisement appeared in the Dutch tv guide Totaal TV. Holding this up to the webcam you wouldn't see just the magazine, but you could see Wall-E come to life too. With moving images and sound. A typical example of augmented reality, an added reality.
So all products come to life. Whatever we’ll point at, there’ll always be something to say about it. Whether it’s a tree, a bicycle, a bag of dirt, the neighbour’s four-year-old, or a 1972 Ferrari, augmented reality ensures that we find out everything ever made available. This is just a beginning.
3D producer ShapeWays lets consumers start their own stores. With ShapeWays technology almost every object can be 'printed': built up step by step. Consumers can make their own design in the ShapeWays environment, which then appears in their own ShapeWays shop with their own URL and their own logo. You can determine your own margin (on top of the production costs). When someone orders your model, ShapeWays prints it, ships it, does all the customer service needed and, of course, pays you the margin. The design rights remain with the designer at all times.
New companies know the absolute advantage that they haven’t built up any regular staff, no holy houses, no people fearing for their jobs. So you can look for people to create new things pretty easily. Existing companies will slim down to models like this. That won’t be easy. In the meantime, ShapeWays will go on. In time we’ll be able to see what our friends made, design models together, let it be wrapped specially and so on. This is just a beginning.
An Intelligent Equivalent of the 3d world
Intelligent Autonomous Robots doing incredible jobs
Nature & technology perfectly blended