I don’t think I’ve ever done a video review of anything before, but this new piece of technology is a lot of fun and I couldn’t resist after putting some video together. It’s the AR.Drone Quadricopter, controlled by an iPhone! The review includes an unboxing, my first flight (indoors, mistake) including a crash in the sink! Then an outdoor flight and some of my comments on...
I happened to be digging through my garage somewhat recently, and ran across my Apple ][+ (of the Apple ][ Series) computer (and it’s green monitor, and dual floppy drives, and joystick, etc). I’ll do an update to that experience later… But for now, I want to share something for all the people out there who believe there’s some sort of cold war between Microsoft and Apple </sarchasm> I...
While I’m not overly thrilled with my long-term bank Wells Fargo, mainly because of their recent assault of unexpected monthly fees across all of my accounts (I do all of my personal and business banking with them, including my mortgage), there are some things they’re doing very well…and that’s what the focus of this article is about. Today I deposited a number of checks into both my personal and...
For the 2009 series, the USOpen has launched an on-line video stream for all of their broadcasts that is magnitudes better than any other I’ve seen to date. I’m sure there are some good ones I may have missed, but this one has fantastic features that can’t be overlooked. This is a game-changing way to watch tennis. First, I’m not the type of person who will go out of my way to watch the game...
The purpose of this post is two-fold: First: To stress the importance of preserving the security of your on-line identity Second: Exposing a company who’s doing an inexcusably poor job of protecting your on-line identity Most of us don’t realize how insecure the on-line world can be. You create an account on a website, give it a username and the password of your choosing. That password is...
This amazing new technology called Layar is currently available on Android devices, but is supposedly being developed for the iPhone 3G S as well. What is it? Point your phone at a location and see what it’s all about. For example, you’re on a city street and you want information about the 4 restaurants in front of you…point your phone at ’em and check out the info as...
A while back, I posted about some Amazing Human-Computer Interfaces. Today, I’m adding a couple of big-name entries into this space. Microsoft and Sony both announced some new controller technologies at E3 a couple weeks back, and I’ve included promotional videos from both. The PS3 motion controller solution appears to be a little closer to prime time and uses a hand-held device...
Wolfram|Alpha – Could it be the next “Google Killer”? Every so often, a new technology comes about that changes the way we do things. Electricity, Television, the Refrigerator, the Dishwasher, the Internet, Google, Personal Computing, Microsoft, the iPhone…these are all fair examples of world-changing inventions. Looking at what Google has done to the many industries they’ve touched (Internet...
It’s rare that I run across an article that makes me want to link it in my blog directly. Normally, I’ll Digg it, or Tweet it, or put it in my Shared News, or something similar so it shows up in my LifeStream (the side-bar to the left). However, this one deserves special mention. It’s a list of 32 applications that you, geek or not, might very well find useful in some form or...
A few weeks back, I wrote an article about Amazing Human-Computer Interfaces, which included a plethora of videos showing off some of these cool technologies. Today, I ran across a guy (Randy Jones) who did a DIY version of a multi-touch interface. He uses it to play music, and shows off how it works in the below video. It’s got a much higher sample rate than most, and is pretty...