Apple isn’t the only entity trying to ease users’ transitions between devices. Tsung-Hsiang Chang, a graduate student at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, and Yang Li, a Google employee, have developed an application that lets users transfer the state of an application from a computer to a smartphone or vice versa just by snapping a picture of the computer’s screen. Once the picture is taken, the application is opened right where the user left off. The application is called Deep Shot, and was designed to work with Web apps. Most Web apps can describe the state they’re in with a combination of symbols, called the unique resource identifier (URI), which Deep Shot can use to seamlessly transfer the working state of an open app without the need for cables or interacting with a third-party app to handle the syncing. Deep Shot is technically a third party, but it appears to work in the background and doesn’t involve itself in a visible way with the transfer process. Read the comments on this post
Posts Tagged ‘user’
Firefox 6 Hits Aurora Channel
May 28th, 2011
admin In a bid to accelerate the Firefox development process, Mozilla introduced a new update channel called Aurora last month. Shorter release cycles mean that Mozilla has absolutely no time to bask in the glory of Firefox 4’s success. In fact, Mozilla has begun two-timing (for lack of a better metaphor) Firefox 5 and Firefox 6. The latter is now available in the Aurora update channel, the browser vendor announced Friday. The latest Firefox Aurora packs a number of new features, including Scratchpad, Data Manager Window, Panorama Groups on Demand, Web Console and Web Developer Menu. The new Data Manager Window lets the user specify the extent to which they want their browsing data, including cookies, passwords and location information, to be accessible to specific websites. For developers, Mozilla has added the Scratchpad to let them quickly build and test Java snippets within the browser. Further, this Aurora build boasts increased support for “HTML5, DOM level 3, server-sent events, networking technologies and other tools that make it easier for developers build advanced Web apps.” More information about the new features is available here . For those who yawn at the prospect of running a beta build but quail at the very sight of a nightly, the Aurora channel offers the best of both worlds, tempering adventure with a bit of stability.
Barnes & Noble goes after Kindle with Nook Simple Touch Reader
May 25th, 2011
admin Barnes & Noble has decided to expand its Nook line by offering a new device that is… less capable than its previous offerings? The company announced the simplified Nook during a media event in New York on Tuesday, arguing that e-book fans are still looking for a “simple, pure reading experience.” That’s why the company decided to launch the $139 Nook Simple Touch Reader—a Kindle-like device that has an E-ink screen, no apps, no fancy colors, and (almost) no buttons. Barnes & Noble CEO William Lynch said the pared-down Nook was for people who are “turned off by buttons, keyboards, and complexity,” such as teens and moms who have apparently found time to relax on the beach. Indeed, while the new Nook is quite Kindle-like in appearance and functionality, the company went to great lengths to tell the audience how inferior Amazon’s e-reader is to the Nook. “Kindle 3 has 38 buttons. That’s 37 more than the all-new Nook,” Lynch said, adding that so many buttons “assault the user.” Read the comments on this post
Dropbox Faces the FTC After Allegedly Lying to Users About Data Security
May 16th, 2011
admin We’ve recommended Dropbox in so many features & how-to’s we’ve lost count. It’s an amazing service that just keeps getting better, but the company has found itself in hot water with the FTC over concerns of anti-competitive behavior related to its file encryption. Wired has done an excellent deep dive on the full FTC complaint against Dropbox, however the main allegations stem from the way Dropbox says it handles your files, and what it actually does in reality. Many of these complaints have resulted in changes to its terms of service, but the FTC is investigating competitor’s allegations that the company has been intentionally vague. For Example: On April 13th Dropbox revised its data security policy to read “All files stored on Dropbox servers are encrypted (AES 256)”. Compare this to the previous wording which states “All files stored on Dropbox servers are encrypted (AES256) and are inaccessible without your account password”. Both policies sounds like you are the only one capable of accessing your data, although this would not technically be correct. Dropbox employees can in-fact access your password and decrypt your data, they are just told not to.
Apple cleaning up App Store rankings by de-emphasizing downloads
April 26th, 2011
admin Apple appears to be making changes to its App Store ranking system in order to de-emphasize the number of times an app has been downloaded. The move is suspected to be in response to app publishers using “pay to install” promotions to get users downloading their apps in large numbers, therefore letting those apps artificially climb the rankings. In some cases, those apps might even be facing an App Store rejection. The “pay to install” model works like this. An app publisher might offer several different games on the App Store, and that publisher might utilize a promotion or ad network to advertise their apps, but with a twist. In many cases, users can “purchase” in-app goods or points for their favorite game by downloading another app by the same publisher. This allows the user to get “free” goods to use within the game, while the publisher’s other apps bubble up to the top of the App Store rankings thanks to the sheer number of downloads. This week, however, several companies began observing changes to the ranking system that appear to weigh more heavily on factors other than the number of downloads. Inside Mobile Apps put together comments from mobile marketing firm Flurry, promotion network W3i, and game publishers Glu Mobile and Gameview Studios that all seem to support this theory. “We’ve been noticing changes in the Top Free rankings for at least three days now,” Flurry’s Peter Farago said. “From our point of view, Apple is absolutely considering more than just downloads, which we believe is the right direction to go in to measure the true popularity of an app.” Apple could be taking things a step further by rejecting some of the most obvious offenders, too. Several developers on the Tapjoy network (which also utilizes pay-to-install promotions) have reportedly begun seeing app rejections, according to TUAW . The company claims it supports Apple’s recent changes to the ranking algorithm but says the incentive-based download system is misunderstood. Still, section 3.10 of Apple’s developer guidelines bars apps that “attempt to manipulate or cheat the user reviews or chart ranking in the App Store with fake or paid reviews, or any other inappropriate methods.” Apple has not commented publicly yet on whether it has indeed decided to begin enforcing this rule, but it certainly seems to be the case. We’re not ones to argue, either—if Apple is using other metrics to bump apps to the top of the rankings, such as active usage time or opening frequency, then it will be a net win for iOS users trying to find the best software. Read the comments on this post
Apple, Google summoned to Senate hearing on mobile device privacy
April 26th, 2011
admin Senator Al Franken (D-MN) has called upon Apple and Google to participate in a hearing with the Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law in order to discuss consumer privacy. The hearing will take place on May 10 at 10am EDT in Washington, where witnesses from the US Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission, Center for Democracy and Technology, and others will talk about what the latest mobile technology means for privacy and the law.
Toshiba’s New Laptop Offers Glasses Free 3D
April 24th, 2011
admin Toshiba’s got a very cool notebook on the horizon. They’ve christened it the Dynabook Qosmio T851/D8CR, and it may well be one of the most unique Toshiba products I’ve seen to date. What’s so unique about it? It’s the first laptop that allows for glasses-free 3D viewing. Sounds pretty awesome, no? Let’s take a closer look. The Tech Let’s start by examining how the Quosmio T851/D8CR(rather cumbersome name, isn’t it?) actually creates the three-dimensional illusion before we look at some of the additional technology that the notebook uses. There’s this method known as the “parallax technique”. What this involves is sending a different image to each eye in order to essentially ‘fool’ the brain into thinking that there’s depth where none exists. One problem with this technique- and one Nintendo’s 3DS ran into- is that it’s highly reliant on the angle at which it’s viewed. Toshiba’s attempted to eliminate this handicap. The onboard webcam has two functions known as “face tracking” and “active lens” which track the position of the user’s eyes and face, and adjust the angle of the 3D image accordingly( The Inquirer ). I’m not sure how this will be affected by the presence of multiple viewers- I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see. The laptop also features real time conversion of 2D to 3D via Toshiba’s proprietary Spursengine image processor. This has the added effect of allowing two dimensional and three dimensional images to be viewed at the same time. ( Engadget ) The Specs The Dynabook actually sports some pretty decent hardware. Then again, this innovative new technology does seem like it might take a fair amount of processing power to pull off, so I suppose it shouldn’t come as any great surprise. The Dynabook Qosmio T851/D8CR features the following technical specifications( Tablets and Smartphones , Geek With Laptop ): 15.6-inch LCD screen,1920×1280 resolution Core i5-2410M CPU (2.3GHz clock speed) Nvidia Geforce GT540M Graphics Card (1 GB of Video Memory) 8GB RAM 750 GB HDD BDXL-compatible Blu-ray drive Digital TV tuner One USB 3.0 slot Three USB 2.0 slots One HDMI slot IEEE 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 3.0+HS Support Not bad. Not bad at all. Truth be told, this might make a halfway decent gaming laptop, specs-wise. Plus, it would be downright epic to see whatever game you happen to be playing literally jump off the screen. Search your feelings, you know it to be true. Final Word Sadly, the Dynabook Quosmio is in the same position as Toshiba’s new Regza tablet. While they’ve announced a Japanese release date, the international release seems to still be quite some time away. It’s a near certainty that Toshiba will eventually release the Dynabook in North America and the UK; the unanswered question is when. Since the Japanese launch is set for late July, we might be waiting for quite a while. And when it finally does release, it’s not going to be cheap, either: Toshiba’s setting the price at $2790.00 for the Japanese release. The price might eventually drop by the time we see the laptop become internationally available, true. Either way, though, you’ll be paying a bit more for this notebook than you would for a run of the mill 15 inch. Regardless of whether or not you feel the Dynabook is worth the cost, you have to admit that Toshiba’s done something pretty awesome here. I’m looking forward to seeing where they go next.



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