FocuSoft Tech Blog |
- Recent Windows Mobile 6.5 ROM shows finger friendly approach
- Vintage Desk Coughs Up Vintage General Electric Abacus [Retromodo]
- Nokia Trademarks "XSeries" Smartphone Line [Nokia]
- Modu cellphone reportedly launching this week in Israel
- Yes, Good Old Retro 1979 Seemed Fun (But It Really Sucked!) [Gizmodo 79]
- PlayStation Eye Still Alive, Support For Facial Recognition Coming Soon [Playstation]
- Sun-Powered DIY Project List to Geek Out the Rest of Your Summer [DIY]
- Tsera thinks it owns the touchpad, sues pretty much everyone to prove it
- Australia Helps Get 1984 Back On Your Kindle [Amazon]
- The Apollo program: One massive rocket designed by young engineers
| Recent Windows Mobile 6.5 ROM shows finger friendly approach Posted: 19 Jul 2009 10:18 AM PDT
 While the world patiently awaits the release of the first Windows Mobile 6.5 device, it seems like the devs behind the software are warming to the fact that folks love those touchscreens. While existing versions of WinMo — not to mention early builds of WinMo 6.5 –have focused on switching between screens via clickable tabs, a new ROM pictured over at PPCGeeks shows a subtle but significant change. If you’ll notice, the screen on the right would prefer that you swipe left or right to get from ‘Version’ to ‘Copyrights’ or ‘Device ID,’ which should absolutely delight fans of the OS who also prefer touchscreen-based phones. Now, if only we could get Microsoft to push this stuff out onto a shipping handset, we’d really have a reason to cheer. [Via 1800PocketPC, thanks Mark] Filed under: Cellphones, Software Recent Windows Mobile 6.5 ROM shows finger friendly approach originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 19 Jul 2009 12:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
|
| Vintage Desk Coughs Up Vintage General Electric Abacus [Retromodo] Posted: 19 Jul 2009 10:00 AM PDT
Reader Robin says this little guy was hiding out in the drawer of a recent vintage purchase:
Personally, I love the simple juxtaposition of the label. An abacus, one of the oldest counting tools on the planet, with a General Electric “Computer Department” label on the side? Classic Retromodo. [Thanks, Robin]
Go here to see the original:
|
| Nokia Trademarks "XSeries" Smartphone Line [Nokia] Posted: 19 Jul 2009 09:30 AM PDT
Trademark crullers over in Finland have unearthed a somewhat obvious but nevertheless interesting find in the Nokia camp this weekend. Mainly, the discovery was made that the “X” line of Nokia smartphones will be soon part of an “XSeries” line.
The rest is here:
|
| Modu cellphone reportedly launching this week in Israel Posted: 19 Jul 2009 09:18 AM PDT
 Take this one with a grain of salt, but word from across the Atlantic is that Modu will finally (finally!) launch its long-awaited, self-titled handset in just a few days. If you’ll recall, we actually toyed with the revamped handset as well as a few “jackets” back at MWC this year, but at that point, no one wanted to share any details surrounding the grand launch plan. Now, however, a report from Israel states that the phone — along with one jacket — will go on sale this Wednesday (July 22nd) for 500 Israeli shekels, or right around $130. So, does this mean that elusive touchscreen Modu is just a few days/weeks/months away, or what? [Thanks, Dror] Filed under: Cellphones Modu cellphone reportedly launching this week in Israel originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 19 Jul 2009 11:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
|
| Yes, Good Old Retro 1979 Seemed Fun (But It Really Sucked!) [Gizmodo 79] Posted: 19 Jul 2009 09:15 AM PDT
Pretty much every gadget then-from typewriters to phones to music playback devices-was an electro-mechanic artifact of the industrial age. But beginning in the 80s all those tools began their ascent to the digital. Basically, we’d wind up doing everything differently. Within a couple of years, the music cassettes we listened to turned would become CDs. The typewriters would become word processors. The cassette-based telephone answering machines would become digital playback devices. Our television choices-four or five channels VHF and maybe four or five more UHF-would be bolstered by hundreds of cable channels. We’d get VCR’s. And tape our own videos. All of that in early 1980’s. Then would come the ubiquity of personal computers. And then the Internet. And cell phones. Are you getting the idea? It was not just a change in our gadgetry, but also a change in our thinking. That’s why Gizmodo’s decision to dive to 1979 was so interesting. Except for those hard at work making the stuff that was about to rock everyone else’s world, people lived unaware of the revolution to come. It was a technological equivalent of the denial between the Wars. I was among those clueless; my own sudden and total conversion wouldn’t come until 1981, when I embarked on a story about the subculture of computer hackers. I did read about those nutty kids who started Apple, and was vaguely aware that all of that stuff was coming. But I never put the pieces together. In my defense, hardly anyone did, and even the ones on top of things grossly underestimated how crazy things would get. There’s no reason to get nostalgic about 1979-in retrospect, it was terrible not having email, Google, iPods, word processing, Twitter, WOW, Amazon, GPS, Google and websites devoted to unnecessary quotation marks. (Also, the Phillies had never won a world series-how awful was that?) Maybe all these new tools have trashed the minds and attention spans of young people growing. But the minds of baby boomers like me were probably ruined much more by unlimited access to the stupid-making television programming of the early sixties. After 1979, the bit was flipped, big-time. Thank God. Steven Levy is a senior writer for Wired, most recently writing about Google’s ad business and the secret of the CIA sculpture. He’s written six books, including Hackers, Artificial Life and The Perfect Thing, about the iPod. In 1979, he had just left his first real job, at a regional magazine called New Jersey Monthly, to become a freelance writer, and had yet to touch a computer. Gizmodo ‘79 is a week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the analog age gave way to the digital, and most of our favorite toys were just being born.
See the rest here:
|
| PlayStation Eye Still Alive, Support For Facial Recognition Coming Soon [Playstation] Posted: 19 Jul 2009 09:00 AM PDT
Says Sony Europe’s Head of Developer Services, Kish Hirani, the Eye will have the ability to “detect gender and even the age of the face, separate facial features such as the nose, eyes and ears, and even detect whether you’re smiling or not.” And taking a page from Microsoft’s Natal platform, Hirani said the Eye will also support “skeleton tracking.” Now, I’ll admit, these are cool features, but I do hope the update allows the PlayStation Eye to work in the dark. Facial recognition firmware update or not, for this to work Sony’s going to have to figure out a way for this forgotten gadget to function from within the pitch black confines of people’s storage closets and attics. [Gamasutra Kotaku]
Read the original here:
|
| Sun-Powered DIY Project List to Geek Out the Rest of Your Summer [DIY] Posted: 19 Jul 2009 08:30 AM PDT
While this Lifehacker list of the top 10 DIY sun-powered projects won’t be much help here in Boston (where we literally saw the Sun three times in June), you may find some use for it in your sunny neck of the woods. [Lifehacker]
Read the rest here:
|
| Tsera thinks it owns the touchpad, sues pretty much everyone to prove it Posted: 19 Jul 2009 08:20 AM PDT
 Do you have any idea where you head when you’d like to sue everyone on the face of the planet, make yourself look like a Class-A fool and get a mention right here? The Eastern District of Texas (Tyler) District court, that’s where. The freshest meshuggeneh to head on down there and start trouble is Tsera, who’s claiming that Apple, Microsoft, LG, Philips, Bang & Olufsen, iriver, Coby, Cowon and even Meizu are violating a patent that it owns. Said patent is titled “Methods and apparatus for controlling a portable electronic device using a touchpad,” and evidently each of the aforesaid outfits have failed to pay Tsera for using its technology. Before you get all bent out of shape, you should realize that this case — in all likelihood — will simply be tossed out or settled away from the courtroom, but you can bet your bottom dollar that Tsera’s never gonna be satisfied. Or taken seriously. [Via The Register] Filed under: Peripherals Tsera thinks it owns the touchpad, sues pretty much everyone to prove it originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 19 Jul 2009 10:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
|
| Australia Helps Get 1984 Back On Your Kindle [Amazon] Posted: 19 Jul 2009 08:00 AM PDT
Courtesy of MAKE, we have this interesting “hack” that provides step-by-step instructions for getting 1984 back on your Kindle—timid publishers frightened of New Media be damned. It’s not too complicated a process, other than that expensive plane ticket of course, but there are a few instructions and tools you’ll need, so head over to MAKE when you’re ready. If you’re already in Australia and care to embark on this completely free-of-charge literary journey, send us some interesting shots of you giving Big Brother the picture while reading 1984, won’t you? [MAKE]
Read the original:
|
| The Apollo program: One massive rocket designed by young engineers Posted: 19 Jul 2009 07:21 AM PDT
The LA Times is keeping the buzz alive with a fantastic article about the construction of the Saturn V rocket that shot the astronauts to the Moon.
If you think about it, that’s about as accurate as it gets. Our engineers who were backed by a massive budget, out-developed the Soviets with the Saturn V rocket. Well done, boys. Well done. The rest is here:
|
![097eb6008eG 1395.jpg Vintage Desk Coughs Up Vintage General Electric Abacus [Retromodo]](http://www.focusoft.biz/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/097eb6008eG_1395.jpg.jpg "Vintage Desk Coughs Up Vintage General Electric Abacus [Retromodo]")
Those young whipper snappers ![a93a085693series.jpg Nokia Trademarks "XSeries" Smartphone Line [Nokia]](http://www.focusoft.biz/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/a93a085693series.jpg.jpg "Nokia Trademarks \"XSeries\" Smartphone Line [Nokia]")
Wish we had more, but again, these are just trademark filings. [![98b9b137e1e levy.jpg Yes, Good Old Retro 1979 Seemed Fun (But It Really Sucked!) [Gizmodo 79]](http://www.focusoft.biz/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/98b9b137e1e_levy.jpg.jpg "Yes, Good Old Retro 1979 Seemed Fun (But It Really Sucked!) [Gizmodo 79]")
Writing about technology as it was thirty years ago, I realized that 1979 was perhaps the last year before a digital tsunami hit, sweeping clean the analog era that had persisted for decades.![39d49cf839pseye.jpg PlayStation Eye Still Alive, Support For Facial Recognition Coming Soon [Playstation]](http://www.focusoft.biz/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/39d49cf839pseye.jpg.jpg "PlayStation Eye Still Alive, Support For Facial Recognition Coming Soon [Playstation]")
The all-but-forgotten ![157fc1029cNY2307.jpg Australia Helps Get 1984 Back On Your Kindle [Amazon]](http://www.focusoft.biz/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/157fc1029cNY2307.jpg.jpg "Australia Helps Get 1984 Back On Your Kindle [Amazon]")
Were you screwed over by Amazon this week when they 
| You are subscribed to email updates from FocuSoft Tech Blog To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 comments:
Post a Comment