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If your cell phone is constantly ringing and you find yourself ending an important conversation abruptly, only to switch to a less important one, the Cellular Squirrel may be for you. The cute little animatronic squirrel was developed by MIT’s own Stefan Marti as a dissertation project and when it picks up an incoming call, it begins a conversation with the caller and compares the caller’s voice, your contact list, and keywords from it’s conversation with the incoming call with your current conversation and decides if the new call is important enough to pull you away from you current conversation.
This embodiment is able to use the same subtle but still public non-verbal cues to get our attention and interrupt us like humans would do (like eye gaze and small gestures), instead of ringing or vibration. The user can whisper and listen to her squirrel, receiving and replying to voice instant messages. If the user wishes, she can also bypass the Intermediary altogether and get into a synchronous voice communication with the caller by simply talking to the embodiment.
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|The Cellular Squirrel via engadget
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The outcome of the current FCC proceedings about using cell phones on airplanes won’t have any effect on whether or not you actually can. According to the FAA, the U.S. ban on phones on commercial aircraft will stay in place regardless of the FCC or public interest. Even if the FAA ban was removed there is always the possibility of a different kind of government regulation, and if Uncle Sam were to decide to allow it, it still remains to be seen if the technology will be in place. For example, Airbus has said that it’s in-air product will not provide support for CDMA phones, so most U.S. flyers wouldn’t be able to use phones anyways.
Read More | Tech Dirt
Take A Stand Against Cheating
Posted by Oscar M. Cantu Categories: Features, Internet, Mods/Hacks, Xbox,
Cheating and mods on multiplayer online enabled games are nothing new to the PC realm of online gaming; however, they are not one in the same to Xbox Live. When playing online multiplayer games on the PC, a host acts as a moderator to the games and is able to kick out anyone he or she sees that are cheating or using a mods in such a way as to give them an advantage over the rest of the players. Xbox Live, however, does not work in that fashion – that luxury is only limited to custom game types. Xbox Live’s, or XBL for short, greatest strength is also its greatest downfall when it comes to cheating and mod use.
Click to continue reading Take A Stand Against Cheating
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Now, I think this one is cool in theory, but I just don’t see the way that it could be used in the real world. Basically, PixelPass allows you to charge micro-transactions for visitors to read your content. I like that you can choose which pages to charge for, as you paste the code on the pages you would like to be subscribed to, and I like that you can’t charge any more than $2.00 per month. What I don’t like is that PixelPass gets 40% of it - although I understand why - because if you charge 25 cents, you aren’t really going to be making any money. The other thing is that if you implement it, then remove it because you don’t like it, those that paid end up getting screwed.
Click to continue reading Monetizing Sites With Mini Subscriptions
Phobile: Old School Handset For The Cell
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Accessories, Smartphones,
If you are jonesin’ for the days of those old dumbell handsets from rotary, and later touch-tone phones, Phobile is here to take you back in style. All this thing does is connect to your cell phone, allowing you to chat it up by holding up one of those old-school dumbells to your head. Honestly now, is there anyone who doesn’t want this thing?
Read More | Phobile Product Page
Earlier today in our post about using the Samsung i730 as an EV-DO modem, I made the following statement: “Oh - looks like DavesiPaq is yet another site reporting that engadget took their content without giving proper credit. This is really starting to become an occurrence that I am hearing about way too often.” I meant that comment to be taken at its face value, but it seems others were taking it to mean that I was implying more than what was there. After conferring with a couple of other people, it turns out that quite a few think I was in the wrong. That being said, I want to take a moment to apologize to the engadget staff for the comment. I meant no ill will by it, but if it was taken that way, my bad.
What are your options if you aren’t a manufacturer, reseller, or developer for making money on the Internet? If you are passionate about a subject and are good at writing, you can make money simply by putting your content out there. Blogs are all the rage on the Internet today, and if you think about it, all they really provide is content which is usually targeted towards some sort of niche. There are many types of advertising models that you can use to monetize content-based websites. You can do text links, banners, intersitials, and even subscriptions once you build up a deep database with tons of dedicated readers. The following article provides a lot of depth for those looking to make money by running a content-based Internet venture.
Click to continue reading Make Money With A Content Site
Microsoft has recently announced that they are taking the Windows CE/Windows Mobile codebase and creating a stable operating system aimed at in car use. The operating system is being called Windows Automotive 5.0 and will feature support for multimedia, GPS, a slew of wireless communications (Bluetooth, 802.11, UPnP, USB, XML, SOAP, and a few others) and support for multiple processors, screens, and activities at the same time. For instance the driver can have a large dash mounted screen showing turn by turn GPS directions while the kids are in the back seat watching a DVD or WMV file stored on a HDD in the trunk. Microsoft is working with BMW, Citroën, DaimlerChrysler, Fiat, Honda, Hyundai, Toyota and Volvo to integrate Windows Automotive 5.0 into cars in the coming years. It will be interesting to see if built in systems like this or custom systems end up being better.
Read More | Microsoft press release
Major slip up from Microsoft – you know someone’s getting the big pink slip. The launch date posted on their partner’s website (and removed) was November 4, 2005. So we can all start our count down watch and put in that vacation requests at work. For all those that care, 11/4/05 is a Friday.
Read More | Xbox365
Verizon doesn’t want you to use your EV-DO phones as BlueTooth modems, but really - who cares what they want? While it was previously thought impossible, DavesiPaq has put up information on how to hack into your Samsung i730 to use it as an EV-DO modem over BlueTooth or USB. Like many other phones, it involves using the username “yourtendigitnumber@vzw3g.com” with the password “vzw”. Unfortunately, there is a lot more to this. Check them out for the full details.
Read More | Samsung i730 EV-DO Modem Instruction
Edit: The issue between DavesiPaq and engadget has been cleared up. Aside from that, the comment above did not come across correctly, and shouldn’t have been made in the first place.
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