IPhone game turns ordinary into fantastic

When what you can see with your own eyes isn’t interesting enough, there’s always augmented reality. Sure, Boston Common has an excellent playground, paddle boats, an ice rink for cheap dates, and sprawling meadows for rallies. But where are the dragons, fairies, and genies?The Hidden Park (www.thehiddenpark.com) brings these fantastic creatures to your iPhone camera’s view of the Common. For me, a guy who failed to plan anything for my 6-year-old, Maeve, this summer, the game will help keep her engaged on those days we find ourselves strolling through town.The $7 iPhone game mixes augmented reality with turn-by-turn directions, geocaching, and animation.The phone’s camera and GPS transponder set the stage for Hidden Park. Armed with a Dora the Explorer-like map, you follow a troll named Trutton past the Common’s benches, over its bridges, and around its ponds. Hidden Park uses a location-based service to recognize your iPhone’s proximity to particular landmarks and then provides directions to the next spot in the game.You will be challenged with riddles and puzzles along the way. And you’ll find the answers in real-life sights and signs. In this way, Hidden Park works like one of the augmented reality tours from Boston-based Untravel (www.untravelmedia.com).Hidden Park works in a handful of other public parks and gardens. Visitors to Central Park and Kensington Gardens, for example, can also play the game on their iPhones.As you photograph various landmarks around the Common, you’ll find Hidden Park cartoon characters appearing in your shots. When you’re done, you will have an album full of things you never really saw. I think of it as meeting Walt Disney characters, without worrying about who might be lurking inside the suit.

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How Many Facebook Users Will Go Public?

By Jano
Marketers trying to horn in on the conversations happening on the Web are paying closer attention to what many consider the ultimate prize: Facebook's user profiles.On June 24, Facebook began testing a feature that lets users share their updates with the public—not just members they've deemed "friends." Each time a user provides an answer to Facebook's profile-page question "What's on your mind?," Facebook's software asks who may be allowed to see it. For instances when "everyone" is chosen, third-party companies are working on software that can analyze the information to see what products or services Facebook members might be interested in. And Facebook is modifying its search engine to look for these real-time feeds as well, the company has said."It opens up a whole other realm of content for companies who want to engage customers," says Marcel LeBrun, chief executive of Radian6, a software company that makes tools that let advertisers and public relations people draw conclusions from conversations on Twitter and other social-media sites. Radian6, Sysomos, and RightNow Technologies (RNOW) all have told BusinessWeek that they're modifying their current products to take advantage of Facebook's new status-broadcasting feature.The insights marketers may glean could prove intriguing. As public status updates accumulate on the site, visitors will be able to search for all mentions of specific keywords, such as "Obama" or "American Idol." Meredith Chin, a Facebook spokeswoman, says some of the site's users may choose to publicly broadcast updates about concert tickets for sale, political opinions, or other matters "widely applicable to more people than your friends."marketers are treading lightly Software companies hoping to mine Facebook's data will need to tread carefully, though. Only a small fraction of the site's 200 million users make their profile data available to companies. And marketers will need to avoid running afoul of the site's famously detail-oriented audience, which tends to bristle at any intrusions on their privacy.

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Microsoft to charge Europeans double for Windows 7

European customers will pay up to twice as much for Windows 7 compared to U.S. users, even though the new operating system will ship without a browser in Europe, according to Microsoft.When the company launches Windows 7 on Oct. 22, it will price Windows 7 Home Premium, likely the most popular of the three editions available at retail, at €119.99 in the European Union (EU) and charge £79.99 in the U.K., an EU member that has retained its own currency. Those prices are the equivalent to $168.66 and $132.14 U.S., respectively, at Saturday's exchange rates.U.S. consumers will pay only $119 for the same software after a two-week pre-order sales discount expires July 11. That means EU residents will pay 41% more, and U.K. consumers 10% more, than U.S. buyers for Home Premium Upgrade.Other editions will come with an even higher surcharge. Windows 7 Professional, the key retail edition for businesses, will sport a price tag of €285, or $400.60, and £189.99, or $313.84, at Saturday's exchange rate. In other words, EU customers will pay twice the $199.99 U.S. price; U.K. buyers will pay 57% more.The top-end Windows 7 Ultimate, priced at $219.99 in the U.S., will cost €299 ($420.27), or 91% more, in the EU, and £229.99 ($330.36), or 50% more, in the U.K.Some of the money Microsoft stands to make on the European editions of Windows 7 comes from the weak dollar. Last week, for instance, the dollar fell against the euro the most in a month, hitting $1.41 per euro.According to Microsoft, it's also not reducing Windows 7's prices from Vista's current marks as much in the EU as it is in the U.S. Windows 7 Home Premium's EU price is down €6, or 4% from the same Vista edition, half the 8% cut that Microsoft made to Home Premium in the U.S. In the U.K., Microsoft left prices untouched; Windows 7 will be priced the same as Vista.Europe's customers will be paying more for less, as Microsoft has decided to yank Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) from Windows 7 in an effort to head off EU antitrust regulators, who may still force the company to take more drastic measures.

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Private updates on Facebook

By Jano
FACEBOOK is testing new privacy controls that will allow the online hangout's roughly 200 million users to decide who should see each of their personal updates.In a Wednesday announcement, Facebook said the option will enable users to customise their postings for specific groups of friends.For instance, a person may want to share certain things - like how they're feeling about the weather - with everyone while limiting the audience able to read other developments - like a wild night of partying.Some Facebook users have gotten into trouble with employers and parents who have read updates containing inflammatory remarks or tales of indiscretions.The additional privacy controls initially will only be available to some Facebook users.(Tech O Bee News)

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Sat, Jun 27, 2009 Google Android, Mobile Phone, Rumors HTC Hero on Sprint?Hot for the new HTC Hero Android phone and living in the US? Well, here’

HTC Hero on Sprint?Hot for the new HTC Hero Android phone and living in the US? Well, here’s a new rumor that might be of interest to you. Word is that Sprint is testing out the HTC Hero suggesting its possible debut on the US carrier later this year. If that doesn’t manage to get you excited, this next one should. In addition to the HTC Hero, talk is that they’re also trying out a CDMA/WiMAX capable Samsung Android phone. We’re sure if this will be a completely new model or just an enhanced version, but this is clearly something we haven’t heard about before. Of course, being that this is still just a rumor, take this latest bit of info with a grain of salt until we get more concrete data on this.

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Help Us Test Google’s Hearing

I gave the voice-mail transcription feature in Google Voice a spin this week. How well does it work? Read on, and then help us give it a few more spins.Google Voice Google Voice, an elaborate tool for managing phone calls and such, is finally opening up to new users. Voice-mail transcription is one of its most intriguing features. When someone leaves you a message in your Google Voice mailbox, Google’s systems attempt to work out what it says and then send you an e-mail transcript. There are other services that do this, but Google Voice has the advantage of being free.My colleague Brian Stelter agreed to help test the feature the other day. His message started out like this:It’s Brian Stelter, and the air conditioning’s on in the background, so maybe that makes it harder to hear, and I’m going to use big words like duchess and fashionable and moustache and unlicensed and Buenos Aires.The transcript I got a few moments later read:it’s brian doctor in the air condition is on the background my database in order to here the number use baker were it’s like a duchess and fashionable and about stocks and unlicensed and when i was there…The result was wrong enough to be kind of entertaining. So I decided it might be a fun Friday exercise to see what other nonsensical poetry the service might be coaxed into producing. This is where you come in. Pick up the phone and call my Google Voice number, [removed -- I got enough calls, thanks]. Your call will go straight to voice mail. Leave me a message. I’ll monitor the results and then post a selection of what comes in on Gadgetwise. Creativity is encouraged. Please be aware that I might post the actual audio of your message, so don’t call if you’re not comfortable with that.

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China accuses Google of spreading pornography

China's government on Thursday accused Google Incorporated of spreading pornography after Chinese internet users were temporarily unable to gain access to the US search giant's main website or China-based service."We have found that the English version of google.com has spread lots of pornographic, lewd and vulgar content, which is in serious violation of Chinese laws and regulations," said foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang.He said authorities "summoned representatives of Google.com in China and urged them to remove the content immediately."Qin, speaking at a regular briefing, did not respond to questions about whether China's government was blocking web users from seeing Google's site. However, he said he hoped the problem can be "resolved immediately".Google said it was investigating the reason for the outage. Chinese users were blocked from seeing Google's US site, its China-based site google.cn and its Gmail e-mail service.A Chinese watchdog agency accused Google last week of providing links to vulgar and obscene sites. Google, based in Mountainview, California, said it would do more to stop users in China from accessing pornography."I would like to stress that Google.com, as an internet enterprise providing services in China, should earnestly abide by all Chinese laws," Qin said."All the punitive measures adopted by the relevant authorities are conducted strictly according to law."The Chinese agency that oversees the internet, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.China has the world's largest population of internet users at more than 298 million. It also has the world's most extensive web monitoring and filtering system, and it regularly blocks access to foreign websites.Authorities launched a crackdown this year that closed more than 1,900 porn-related websites.Google has struggled to expand in China, where it says it has about 30 per cent of the search market. The company launched Google.cn with a Chinese partner after seeing its market share erode as government filters slowed access to its US service.

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SlashGear Week in Review – Week 26 2009

It has been an eventful week in the geek world with all sorts of new products and important announcements turning up for the first time. The big story of the week was the launch of the iPhone 3GS last Friday. Word came on Monday that the 3GS sold a whopping 1 million units in its first three days of availability. Unfortunately, for some users, it took them an extra three days just to get their shiny new iPhone 3GS activated. Despite the fact that activation failures were on AT&T’s side of the iPhone equation, Apple offered users $30 in iTunes credit as a sorry AT&T sucks peace offering to new owners.Apple did have a problem that was first reported last week that it had no one else to blame for. Some MacBook Pro models were having a problem with SATA speeds, but Apple issued a fix for the SATA problem on Tuesday. The issue only reared its head on Pro models that were equipped with the factory SSD option.Intel and Nokia had been teasing the tech community with promises of a big announcement that many had pegged as a Nokia MID or netbook running Intel hardware. The reveal was a letdown for many of us as the two firms announced that they would be collaborating on open source software like Moblin and Maemo and that Intel would be licensing Nokia HSPA modem tech. AT&T also released its iPhone OS 3.0 supporting AT&T Navigator application this week. The app turns the iPhone 3G and 3GS devices running the latest OS version into full featured turn-by-turn navigation devices. The big catch is that the App costs $9.99 per month.Perhaps the largest announcement this week was the official introduction of the HTC Hero Android-powered smartphone. The device may have been leaked in the excess prior to its official introduction, but it was still an important event. In fact, we got our hands on the Hero and spent some time fondling it on video just for you, and the Hero is certainly sweet. The Pre is still big news since its launch a few weeks back and word came out on Thursday that the Pre had racked up a cool one million app downloads in its first 18 days of availability.That number is better than many though at first glance when you step back and look at the number of downloads per Pre user. The stats show that most Pre users are much more likely to download an App than iPhone users are.

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Windows 7 pricing announced 25.06.2009

As Microsoft announced the pricing for the forthcoming Windows 7 operating system (OS), it gave news that apart from the full packaged product, customers would also be offered a lower-priced 'Upgrade' version. Europe will technically be excluded from this offering, but will still benefit from the savings it brings.While Windows 7 Home Premium (Full) will retail at US$199.99, the Home Premium (Upgrade) costs US$80 less at US$119.99 and is available for those with an existing Vista or XP Windows licence.Brad Brooks, corporate VP for Windows Consumer Marketing, explained in an interview that for us here in Europe, Microsoft "will not have a separate upgrade SKU for the packaged retail product versions of Windows 7 at GA, but we will be offering upgrade pricing on our full licences to make sure that European customers who want to upgrade have the pricing options available in the rest of the world."Sounds complicated? It may be akin to the previous restrictions following an anti-trust investigation from the Europe Commission surrounding Microsoft's web browser dominance on PCs, which is leading to an absence of Internet Explorer pre-installed on new Windows 7 PCs all across the EU."We will be offering upgrade pricing on our full licences to make sure that European customers who want to upgrade have the pricing options available in the rest of the world," said Brandon LeBlanc on the official Windows 7 blog.The Windows 7 Upgrade Option Program starts tomorrow, so anyone who buys a new PC between then and when the OS goes on sale can avail of the discounted upgrade price up until 31 January 2010.Pre-orders for Windows 7 in UK, France and Germany (and presumably Ireland too) start 15 July, and will run until 14 August.

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Apple's iPhone 3.0 firmware upgrade brings powerful features

The iPhone 3.0 update to Apple's smartphone operating system delivers a raft of dazzling new features, including copy and paste, Spotlight search, and user-interface refinements. The Apple nerdosphere had a meltdown Wednesday, when Apple released Version 3.0 of its iPhone firmware. Breathless, sweaty fanboys and girls filled Twitter with messages describing in excruciating detail how they were downloading and installing the software.I know all this because I was one of the nerdiest, most breathless, sweatiest, and overenthusiastic fanboys of all.The iPhone 3.0 software is a treat, making a good smartphone even better. It delivers some new capabilities, like long-overdue copy/cut/paste support, Spotlight search, and push notifications, as well as small user interface refinements that make the device more pleasant and efficient to use. And the Find Your iPhone and Remote Wipe security services are surprisingly interesting. The upgrade is free to iPhone users, $10 for iPod Touch users

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Zune HD is powered by Nvidia Tegra

In April, the rumors about the Zune HD were plentiful and very interesting. Among them was one that suggested the device would be powered by Nvidia's Tegra chipset. This rumor kept coming up every few weeks or so, but no one could get official confirmation from Microsoft. However, during podcast number 24 of the Zune Insider, Matt Akers, Software Development Engineer in Test, finally gave the official statement that many have been waiting for. We actually wanted to confirm something. There's been a lot of chatter going on right now about us possibly putting the Nvidia Tegra chipset in the Zune HD. Guess what we did. Ok, right now, we’re going to go ahead and confirm that. Yes, the Zune HD does have the Tegra chip in it, which is so sick. So much better battery life, graphics acceleration. I mean, this thing is like a mini laptop in your hand. It's so awesome.

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Google to step up anti-porn efforts in China

Google Inc. said Friday that it was working to block pornography reaching users of its Chinese service after a mainland watchdog found the search engine turned up large numbers of links to obscene and vulgar sites.Google said in a statement that company officials had met government representatives "to discuss problems with the Google.cn service and its serving of pornographic images and content based on foreign language searches."We have been continually working to deal with pornographic content - and material that is harmful to children - on the Web in China," the statement said.The statement followed accusations from the China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Center that Google had failed to "filter pornographic contents from its search engine results according to China's relevant laws and regulations."The watchdog said tests found that the search engine provided links to a large number of lewd and vulgar pictures, videos and articles, though it gave no specific examples.China, with the world's largest population of Internet users at more than 298 million, has the world's most extensive system of Web monitoring and censorship and has issued numerous regulations in response to the rise of blogging and other trends.While the government claims the main targets are pornography, online gambling, and other sites deemed harmful to society, critics say that often acts as cover for detecting and blocking sensitive political content.State media reported Friday that the government had stopped some of Google.cn's search functions. Details weren't given, and it wasn't exactly clear what had been closed off.In its statement, Google said the company was working to fix any problems with improper searches. "This has been a substantial engineering effort, and we believe we have addressed the large majority of the problem results," it said.Google, headquartered in Mountain View, California, has struggled to expand in China, where it says it has about 30 percent of the search market. China's homegrown Baidu search engine remains the most popular, with about 60 percent of the market.The company launched Google.cn with a Chinese partner after seeing its market share erode as government filters slowed access for Chinese users to its U.S. service.While sites on topics such as the banned Falun Gong sect or Tibetan independence are perennially blocked in China, readers could still gain some access to such information through Google's cache function.Google.cn returns search results on sensitive political topics only for sites not offensive to the government. Human rights activists have criticized the new service, which excludes search results on human rights, the Dalai Lama and other topics banned by the communist government.

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How Apple, AT&T Are Closing the Mobile Web

by Jano
A growing chorus claims that Apple’s questionable approval policy for its iPhone application store raises issues with net neutrality.Free Press, a group that advocates the idea of an open internet — that is, one in which consumers have the right to browse the web and run internet applications without restrictions — is the latest of several organizations to call out Apple for its inconsistencies. Free Press alleges that Apple crippled SlingPlayer, a TV-streaming application for iPhone, so that it would only work on a Wi-Fi connection; the initial version worked with a 3G cellular network connection as well as Wi-Fi. The SlingPlayer restriction is inconsistent with Apple’s approval of the Major League Baseball application, which provides live-streaming of sports events on both Wi-Fi and 3G connections, the group said.“That strikes us as odd and potentially nefarious because it really represents a carrier picking and choosing applications for consumers as opposed to letting consumers decide which videos they want to watch,” said Ben Scott, policy director of Free Press. “It’s exactly the sort of thing you’d expect in an internet experience that’s controlled by the carrier.”Now nearly a year old, Apple’s App Store has received as much praise as it has criticism.
Featuring more than 50,000 applications, the App Store has made some programmers quite wealthy with sales of their apps while leaving others penniless when their software met the harsh fate of rejection. Apple has said that iPhone and iPod Touch users have downloaded more than 1 billion apps from the store since it opened in July 2008.IPhone application developer Ben Kahle also feels that Apple is overreaching in its role as a gatekeeper to the mobile internet. In May, Apple rejected Kahle’s app “Me So Holy,” which would have enabled users to fashion their faces into portraits resembling Jesus Christ. Apple said the app contains “objectionable material,” and when Kahle asked if he could modify the app to gain approval, Apple said it would never appear in the App Store under any condition.Why? Apple said it has a “worldwide market” and must “protect the sensitivity of the customers,” according to Kahle.“It’s definitely hypocritical,” Kahle said of 3G-capable live-streaming for MLB in relation to SlingPlayer, which is Wi-Fi only. “There needs to be a better system for people to choose the type of content they can download.”

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T-Mobile plans July launch of new Google phone

By Jano
Following huge introductions of the Palm Pre and new iPhone 3G S, T-Mobile on Monday announces July availability of MyTouch 3G, the second phone on Google's Android operating system.It's the first of 18 new Google-powered phones coming worldwide by the end of the year, Google says, declining to provide specifics. Tech and telecom analysts expect Sprint to have an Android phone by year's end.T-Mobile has sold 1 million of its first-generation Google phone, the G1. That's tepid compared with the 21.2 million iPhones sold in the last two years, but T-Mobile says it's thrilled with the response. It expects the new phone to sell at a faster clip.The MyTouch is smaller, can sync with Microsoft Outlook and has an improved battery, T-Mobile says. "We've addressed some of the concerns from customers," says Andrew Sherrard, T-Mobile vice president.Current T-Mobile customers can order beginning July 8 for delivery later in the month. General retail availability is planned for early August.The touch-screen phone — made by HTC — sells for $199 with a new two-year contract. Sherrard says T-Mobile will offer a discounted rate for current customers but hasn't finalized pricing.T-Mobile's selling point is personalization, with customizable menus, wallpapers and icons. A new program called Sherpa learns your favorite locations and preferences and makes recommendations accordingly. The phone also has instant access to Google services.Even though the Android platform hasn't taken off in public consciousness as the iPhone has, "It's important to remember that globally, this is a market of billions and billions of users," says Andy Castonguay, a Yankee Group analyst. "There's plenty of room for lots of different players."Google first announced Android in 2007. It gives the operating system to manufacturers for free. Google product manager Erick Tseng says getting phones from idea stage to manufacturer is an 18- to 24-month process. "What you're seeing now is the outcome of the development."Google has 5,000 applications available for Android from its network of developers, and the list is growing, says Tseng.Apple has a huge lead, with more than 50,000 applications available from about 20,000 developers, says Forrester Group analyst Charles Golvin. "But in the United States, there are probably more developers working with Google, after Apple, than any other mobile platform."

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