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Monday, July 1, 2013

Topographic maps illustrate where Twitter's bird flies highest

Not every Twitter user geotags their musings, but there are enough who do to generate some very insightful data. On its blog today, Twitter shared images from Data Visualization Scientist Nicolas Belmonte, who created topographic maps visualizing the density of geotagged tweets. The result is striking, as tweets clearly correlate with roads, geographic features and even lines of public transit. In addition to the blog's stills, you can futz around with interactive maps of New York, San Francisco and... Istanbul. When you realize the implications of all those tweets from the Bay Bridge, it's frightening enough to consider taking BART across the Bay instead.

Filed under: Meta, Internet

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Source: Twitter Blog

via Engadget RSS Feed http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/29/topographic-twitter-maps/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget http://www.engadget.com

Friday, June 28, 2013

Twitter visualizes billions of tweets in artful, interactive 3D maps

On June 1st, Twitter created beautiful maps visualizing billions of geotagged tweets. Today, the social network is getting artsy once agsain, using the same dataset — which it calls Billion Strokes — to produce interactive elevation maps that render geotagged tweets in 3D. This time around, Twitter visualized geotagged tweets from San Francisco, New York, and Istanbul in maps that viewers can manipulate.

via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/28/4475804/twitter-interactive-3d-map-tweet-visualization http://www.theverge.com/

Facebook implements new policy to crack down on objectionable ad material

No one really likes ads, but for better or worse, they're a sort of necessary evil when it comes to, you know, making money online. And while Facebook's not likely to stop sprinkling your stream with paid content, the social network announced a new plan today to tackle some of the more...questionable content that's made its way onto the site. Starting Monday, the service will implement a new review process for deciding which Pages and groups will get their own accompanying ads. That process will be manual to start, with an automated version in the future. Facebook plans to have all the offending violent, graphic and sexual content removed by the end of next week.

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Source: Facebook Newsroom

via Engadget RSS Feed http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/28/bye-bye-dirty-facebook-ads/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget http://www.engadget.com

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Robo Raven is a robotic drone that flies like a real bird

Before the concept of lift was well-understood, humanity tried all manner of bird-shaped contraptions in the pursuit of powered flight. It was a monumental failure back then, but a team at the University… via Geek.com http://www.geek.com/science/robo-raven-is-a-robotic-drone-that-flies-like-a-real-bird-1559835/ http://www.geek.com

Flytecam Is A Streamlined GoPro Challenger

Whether you need another option or not, Flytecam is a 1080p POV video camera that's looking to compete. It has specs that land it between GoPro's lowest and middle tier offerings, but it's supposed to be cheaper and doesn't require waterproof or shock resistant cases.

Flytecam has a rubberized body, is waterproof down to 3 meters, has an 120º lens and shoots 60fps for slow motion in 720p. It claims a three hour battery life and was developed alongside a "flytemount" that uses neodymium magnets and rubber teeth to secure the camera for mounting (see below).

Pre-order is starting soon and pricing alone will decide whether this is a legitimate competitor (the base model GoPro is currently $200). But Flytecam's creators claim that they started the project "because we couldn’t find a product that we really wanted, (and most certainly couldn’t afford)." Okay, well then it better be cheap. [Werd]

Flytecam Is A Streamlined GoPro Challenger S

via Gizmodo http://gizmodo.com/flytecam-is-a-streamlined-gopro-challenger-550612931 http://gizmodo.com/flytecam-is-a-streamlined-gopro-challenger-550612931

Video Killed The Instagram Star

Instagram, an app best known for photo-sharing, added video last week, as it (and parent Facebook) sought to defend against the advance of Twitter’s fast-growing video-sharing app, Vine. The hope was to give its users a whole new way to share what is happening around them with friends. But while it was an ambitious new feature for the company to add, the end result has been that Instagram has sacrificed the user experience for those consuming content.

Becoming “Instagram for Video”

More than a year ago, Hunter Walk broke down the comparison between photos and videos and exactly why it was so difficult for someone to become the “Instagram for video“:

“Think about the photos you look at in either your social feeds or specific photos sites: 99% of them interest you because the subject(s) and/or camera holder is someone you know (or you yourself). Because pictures are static, you can also grok and scan them very quickly, meaning the “cost” of a bad picture is low, hence you are interested in pictures from a wider variety of friends.”

That’s not necessarily true for video, where there’s “a much higher cost to watching a video,” he argued. Viewers are much less willing to invest the time needed in a video to find the part that’s interesting. Especially not if they came to it not expecting video.

And here is the trouble that Instagram finds itself in: It didn’t fundamentally make video creation more artistic, nor did it make video consumption any more enjoyable. In fact, the few “features” it added to differentiate itself from Vine — the availability of 15 seconds versus 6, and video filters — have both been done before.

A singularity of purpose

It’s not just that Instagram failed to make video easier to create or more enjoyable to watch. It’s that, in shoehorning video into an app that users had previously used exclusively for photos, it ruined the core user experience for everyone.

Think about all of the best, most popular apps out there today. Almost every single one of them does one thing, and it does it well. There’s Twitter for broadcasting short messages of text with the world. There’s Snapchat for sending ephemeral messages to your friends. And there’s Vine for shooting and sharing short videos.

Instagram used to be one of those types of apps. It used to be the app for sharing and viewing beautiful photos from friends. But now, with the addition of video, that singularity of purpose is gone. Users who had spent the last few years creating highly curated lists of their favorite mobile photographers have spent the last few days wading through a sea of crappy video selfies. By introducing one little feature to its toolset, Instagram is pushing those hardcore users out the door.

Damn it — the epidemic of terrible filtered videos on Instagram has started. On the upside I will take Instagram time and watch Netflix—
Om Malik (@om) June 20, 2013

Can Instagram be saved?

As can be the case whenever a company with a large user base announces a major change to its app or website (see Digg, Facebook), the reaction to Instagram’s addition of video has been somewhat negative among pundits, reviewers, and users. The app had lost half a star in its ratings just a day after the video feature had been released. More telling is that, most negative reviews are due to videos clogging up users’ feeds, not posting, or slowing down their ability to view photos.

John Gruber perhaps put it best:

“They did this to spite Vine (and Twitter, which owns Vine), not because it makes Instagram better, because it doesn’t make Instagram better, it makes it worse.”

There are some who believe the problem will be self-correcting. Everyone is rushing to shoot videos on Instagram now, but over time people will stop experimenting and uploading crappy videos to the service. On the other hand, we’ll likely see more thoughtful, more artistic videos begin to emerge on the platform. When that happens, those people argue, users will begin to find a lot more value in having videos in their Instagram feeds.

Testing new social apps and features without looking ridiculous can be tricky.—
Alexia Tsotsis (@alexia) June 21, 2013

Others suggest that Instagram allows user to filter out videos or simply separate its feeds into photos and videos. That would have the effect of letting those who show up just for the videos to still have access to them, while restoring the photo-only Instagram feed for everyone else.

That might improve things, but it doesn’t change the fact that the Instagram we have now is not the Instagram we all came to love over the last few years. It’s unlikely that its 130 million users will leave en masse and find another photo-sharing app to idolize in its place.

But maybe they find themselves opening Instagram just a little bit less. And then sharing just a little bit less. And so on and so on.

via TechCrunch http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/23/video-killed-the-instagram-star/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29 http://techcrunch.com

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

How to hide your data from Internet snoops

Let's face it: Most of us don't e-mail, tweet, text or post anything worthy of clandestine scrutiny.

via CNN.com - Technology http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/18/tech/web/how-to-encrypt-email/index.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_tech+%28RSS%3A+Technology%29 http://www.cnn.com/TECH/index.html?eref=rss_tech

Always-on voice controlled smartphones to appear in 2014

Citing multiple sources, GottaBeMobile reports that LG has plans to release a smartphone with always-on voice activation as soon as next year. Reportedly, smartphones armed with the technology will respond only to the owner's voice and may require just a simple "hello" to begin processing voice input. ...

via TechSpot http://www.techspot.com/news/52942-always-on-voice-controlled-smartphones-to-appear-in-2014.html http://www.techspot.com

Google asks for permission to publish FISA data, says 'misleading' reports hurt the company

Since The Guardian and The Washington Post published a series of leaked documents, companies named as participants in the PRISM surveillance program have attempted to set right what they call "misleading" claims about their data. Earlier this month, Google asked the attorney general and FBI director to let it include requests made under the controversial FISA rules in its periodic transparency report, which details the number of requests for user information that it receives. Now, the company has filed a motion asking the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to allow it to publish estimated numbers of FISA requests without fear of reprisal.

"Google's reputation and business has been harmed by the false or misleading reports in the...

via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/18/4442824/google-asks-court-for-permission-to-publish-fisa-data http://www.theverge.com/

NFC-powered Geak ring grants the wearer new smartphone controls

While NFC seems to be taking the slowest possible route to becoming useful in the US, China-based Geak has put out a ring that grants smartphone owners unique unlock and sharing capabilities. The… via Geek.com http://www.geek.com/android/nfc-powered-geak-ring-grants-the-wearer-new-smartphone-controls-1559285/ http://www.geek.com

A Smartwatch?!

Let’s face it, if you didn’t know what a smartphone was, you probably wouldn’t be on this site right now. We all know what a smartphone is, but have you ever heard of a smartwatch? I’m not talking about a GPS watch. I’m talking about a watch that can do pretty much everything your smartphone can do, and possibly more.

GEAK, a subsidiary of Shanda, has developed what they call a GEAK Watch, and it could possibly be the first true smart watch to ever exist.

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Original Story A Smartwatch?!

The post A Smartwatch?! appeared first on Geeky Gadgets.

via Geeky-Gadgets http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/a-smartwatch-17-06-2013/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+geeky-gadgets+%28Geeky+Gadgets%29 http://www.geeky-gadgets.com

Virtual Reality Gaming Coming Soon?

When I thought of the future as a kid, I had two things in mind. Hoverboards and virtual reality gaming. As 2015 draws ever closer, I’ve yet to see hoverboards on the horizon, but virtual reality gaming could be right around the corner. Oculus, the virtual reality company behind the Oculus Rift (feature in the picture below), received $16 million from investors to turn the Oculus Rift into a purchasable mass consumer product.

As of right now, only major developers and those who forked over $300+ during Oculus’ Kickstarter campaign have access to the Oculus Rift. However, Oculus has started selling the Rift development kit outside of the Kickstarter campaign.

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Original Story Virtual Reality Gaming Coming Soon?

The post Virtual Reality Gaming Coming Soon? appeared first on Geeky Gadgets.

via Geeky-Gadgets http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/virtual-reality-gaming-coming-soon-17-06-2013/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+geeky-gadgets+%28Geeky+Gadgets%29 http://www.geeky-gadgets.com

Alien Contact via GIF?

NASA, and various other space-based associations, have tried sending all kinds of things through space in order to communicate with alien life – one of the most recent examples being the Beetles’ “Across the Universe” track that was sent in 2008. This year, a project called Lone Signal will attempt to communicate with alien life via GIF.

The GIF is going to be sent to Gliese 526, a solar system that many believe could be habitable, via a large radio dish in California on June 18^th. The solar system is more than 17 light years away, meaning it won’t arrive at its destination until 2018.

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Original Story Alien Contact via GIF?

The post Alien Contact via GIF? appeared first on Geeky Gadgets.

via Geeky-Gadgets http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/alien-contact-via-gif-17-06-2013/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+geeky-gadgets+%28Geeky+Gadgets%29 http://www.geeky-gadgets.com

Ever Wondered How A Quantum Computer Works? (video)

If like me you have ever wondered how a quantum computer works, then this short seven minute video should help explain things a little more detail and put your questions to rest.

“A quantum computer is a computation device that makes direct use of quantum-mechanical phenomena, such as superposition and entanglement, to perform operations on data”, says the official introduction on the Wikipedia website. But what doe this actually mean, watch the video after he jump to learn more.

Quantum Computer

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Original Story Ever Wondered How A Quantum Computer Works? (video)

The post Ever Wondered How A Quantum Computer Works? (video) appeared first on Geeky Gadgets.

via Geeky-Gadgets http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/ever-wondered-how-a-quantum-computer-works-video-18-06-2013/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+geeky-gadgets+%28Geeky+Gadgets%29 http://www.geeky-gadgets.com