The Robotic Butterfly That Flies Like The Real Thing [Robot]
The ChouChou Robotic Butterfly is just like a real butterfly, except it can live forever. Or at least until its battery runs out. You won't even know the difference, just watch it fly. [Japan Trends] More
Newspapers Install Credit Card Readers on Vending Machines
In an effort to retain a dwindling readership, some newspapers are equipping vending machines with credit and debit card readers. According to Advertising Age, The Wall Street Journal installed card readers on 190 newspaper boxes located in the greater New York area. It's a matter of convenience for customers, since many more people carry a Visa or Mastercard in their pockets than do quarters. The WSJ isn't the first -- nor the last -- to try this approach. The Tribune Company has been testing card readers on five boxes in Chicago for six months now, and The New York Times began testing card readers on some of its machines about a year ago. Even USA Today has tested digital payment on about 60 boxes, located in airports across the country, and The New York Post plans to begin testing the technology on ten machines soon.
However, according to Ian Jackson, VP for circulation at The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, vending machines account for less than 5-percent of total sales. None of the machines equipped with boxes have shown an increase in sales, either. But installing card readers isn't about creating new revenue; it's about keeping the sinking ship afloat for a while longer. Newspapers simply can't afford to lose any more customers, and that could very well happen if they don't provide easier methods of payment. Still, unfortunately, the option to buy a paper with a card, which we welcome, could be too little and way too late. [From: Advertising Age]
Newspapers Install Credit Card Readers on Vending Machines originally appeared on Switched on Fri, 09 Jul 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Google Flu Trends Less Accurate Than Center for Disease Control
Despite using real-time search data, Google Flu Trends is less accurate at pinpointing confirmed influenza cases than originally thought. According to The Wall Street Journal, a study (.PDF) done by University of Washington scientists found that the site is less accurate than the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) flu surveillance programs. From 2003 to 2008, Google Flu Trends accurately predicted confirmed flu cases 72-percent of the time. Meanwhile, over the same span, the CDC's program had an 85-percent rate of success.
While the CDC's main concern is confirming flu cases, Google Flu Trends tracks and pinpoints any flu-like illness by aggregating search results. The WSJ compares Flu Trends to a guide, rather than an indicator, of actual flu cases. "It's important to look at them [together] in order to get a real sense of the situation," Matt Mohebbi, Flu Trends' lead engineer, told the WSJ. But now we know, like much data, it needs to be taken with a grain of salt -- or at least Emergen-C. [From: The Wall Street Journal]
Google Flu Trends Less Accurate Than Center for Disease Control originally appeared on Switched on Wed, 19 May 2010 06:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Yankees vs. Mariners Going 3-D on DirecTV This Summer
America's favorite pastime will get a makeover later this summer, when Major League Baseball (MLB) broadcasts its first games in 3-D. According to MLB Fanhouse, the July 10th and 11th games between the New York Yankees and the Seattle Mariners will be broadcast in 3-D by DirecTV, but only for viewers in the YES Network and Fox Sports Northwest network coverage area. If you don't have a 3-D TV set, you can still watch the games in crisp high-definition.
Why is MLB making this move now? Well, the league's 2010 All-Star Game, which takes place on July 13th from Anaheim, California, will be broadcast in 3-D. So think of these Yankees versus Mariners games as batting practice for the big show. "This is a good opportunity to make sure that when the All-Star Game is broadcast in 3-D, there is at least some experience," Eric Shanks of DirecTV told Fanhouse.
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Filed under: TV
Yankees vs. Mariners Going 3-D on DirecTV This Summer originally appeared on Switched on Fri, 07 May 2010 07:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
eCards Too Much Work? Procrastinators Send Video Cards From Phones
Forget thumbing through racks of paper greeting cards. Some card companies are now offering a video alternative on cell phones. According to The New York Times, American Greetings has taken the lead, and is now offering short video messages that are selected from a Web site and sent to a phone. Best of all, these e-cards are available to customers of all the major service providers. You don't need a data plan to send or receive a greeting, but you will have to pay an annual $15.99 subscription fee. That price will get you access to about 500 video cards, with plans for thousands more. Yet, unless you're a chronic card sender, Hallmark's pay-as-you-go service seems like a better option. It costs just 99-cents to send a card from the Web to a cell phone.
While video greetings aren't about to eclipse text messages in popularity, some predict they do have huge market potential. Portio Research, a British firm, estimates it'll be worth about $31.5 billion by the end of this year. We'd be open to dropping some cash on a video greeting and saving a trip to the store -- unless there's a pricey subscription fee. Then, a simple hug or phone call on a friend's birthday will suffice. [From: The New York Times]
Filed under: Cell Phones
eCards Too Much Work? Procrastinators Send Video Cards From Phones originally appeared on Switched on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Emergency Vehicle Gadget Overload Will Kill/Save Us All [Trends]
Cops got laptops, ambu-lance drivers got cellphones, and now look, they're all running us over and making us dead. This is a concern right now! So should you be outraged and/or scared? Probably not. More
Japanese Otaku Update: Now They’re Indulging In "Factory Night Jungle Cruises" [Japan]
When planning your next Japan visit, better put aside a night for a "factory night jungle cruise" if you want to be right up there with the latest Japanese otaku craze. They literally visit factories, at night.
According to Japan Trends, which brought the fad to our attention, the "factory love" is popular among photographers—which I can understand, as lit-up factories can be quite scenic—but also families and couples too. A cruise around Panasonic's factory doesn't seem quite as romantic to me as cocktails at the top of the Park Hyatt Hotel, but then the 4,500 Yen ($50) cruise ticket price is probably cheaper than a few sake cocktails anyway. [Tabism via Japan Trends]
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Japanese Otaku Update: Now They're Indulging In "Factory Night Jungle Cruises" [Japan]
Babies With BlackBerrys: Kids Increasingly Wielding Cell Phones
At an age when we were still playing with plastic toys, 10- and 11-year-old kids today are downloading games, sending text messages and surfing the Web with cell phones. After the communications fall-out of 9/11, many parents saw cell phone ownership as not just a priority, but a safety measure. Providers cashed in on family plans, and the nation took up talking and walking. Yet, now we have a generation who can't remember what it's like to dial.
According to the New York Times, a recent study (PDF link) from Mediamark Research and Intelligence found that the percentage of cell phone owners among kids aged 6 to 11 has doubled since 2005. According to the study, boys are to blame. While girls are still more likely to have a mobile device than boys, the gap between them closed in the last five years to 21.8-percent for girls and 18.3-percent for boys (it was twice as big in 2005). Overall, about 36-percent of kids in the previously mentioned age group own a cell phone. That's just staggering, since even the youngest among us didn't get our first cell phones until we could legally drive [Edit. Note: To be fair, back then, they were brick-like and made horrible noises when the call didn't go through].
Continue reading Babies With BlackBerrys: Kids Increasingly Wielding Cell Phones
Filed under: Cell Phones
Babies With BlackBerrys: Kids Increasingly Wielding Cell Phones originally appeared on Switched on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Make Your Scratched Gadget Shiny, YouTube Adds Automatic Captions
There's a load of great tech news happening out there every day, and, unfortunately, we just can't cover it all. Here are a few of the other noteworthy things we saw today on our never-ending journey through the wild, wild Web.
- Hack n Mod shows you how to take a clunky gadget scratched from months of abuse to a sleek, brandless futuristic device with just a few simple polishing tips. [From: Hack n Mod, via: OhGizmo]
- Though Google first announced automatic captions on YouTube videos way back in November, the world's most popular video site is finally rolling out the features on all English-speaking videos. [From: TechCrunch / Washington Post]
- This coffee thermos, from Canon's press center at the Olympics, was designed to look like the company's pro L-series "white" lenses. It's also possibly the coolest geek swag ever, and will probably be going for thousands on eBay in a few weeks. [From: pdn via Chad Mumm]
- Claiming that whole "Internet thing" isn't going to work out or that we'll all be using flying cars in a decade probably isn't the best way to gain credibility, so Slate's got a guide to sussing out bad tech predictions. [From: Slate]
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Make Your Scratched Gadget Shiny, YouTube Adds Automatic Captions originally appeared on Switched on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 18:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Kosuke Tsumura’s ‘Cable Knits’ Impress, Follow Upcycled Art Trend
Refuse has long been a popular medium in the contemporary art world, from Jessica Stockholder's abstract sculpture to Chris Ofili's appropriation of elephant dung, and it goes even as far back as Marcel Duchamp's readymade 'Fountain' and the beginning of objets trouv