HappY NEW YEAR 2010

Wish You A Very Happy New Year!!




Let this year brings Peace, Prosperity, Unity to all Human Kind!!

Augmented Reality (AR)

Augmented Reality?

Wiki defines it as,

Augmented reality (AR) is a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are merged with (or augmented by) virtual computer-generated imagery - creating a mixed reality. The augmentation is conventionally in real-time and in semantic context with environmental elements.

In short, Augmented reality is a field of computer research which deals with the combination of real-world and computer-generated data.

Unlike virtual reality, augmented reality does not create a simulated reality.

few eye-catching stuff on AR, check out the videos









Isnt it interesting?

for more info on this technology..continue reading
Tech-faq

How stuff works

www.se.rit.edu

Adobe Releases Flash Player 10.1 And AIR 2.0

Flash Player 10.1

Lots of new stuff in Flash Player 10.1 including the multi-touch APIs, the performance gains, and some new networking APIs. The biggest thing with this release is the huge, huge memory improvements.

AIR 2 must be a great release with some cool new features include:

1. Support for the detection of mass storage devices.
2. File handling with its native application.
3. Multi-touch support.
4. APIs for access to raw microphone data.



To download AIR 2.0 & Flash Player 10.1

Sneak peek of new AS Editor

AS Editor : Introduce from den ivanov on Vimeo.

AS Editor : Smart complete from den ivanov on Vimeo.

GO

Google has announced the release of a new, open sourced programming language called Go.

Google says 'GO' is experimental, and that it combines the performance and security benefits associated with using a compiled language like C++ with the speed of a dynamic language like Python.

iPhone Remote Controlled Car

“Spirit of Berlin” is a project of the Artificial Intelligence Group, directed by Prof. Raul Rojas, at Freie Universitaet Berlin.



Isn't this interesting? To know more about this project check here

Phidget

Phidget! What? Something new i heard today and i wanted to know about it..and a quick search gave me an idea about this interesting stuff.

So now i know what it is and why is it for. :)

A phidget is a physical representation and/or implementation of a GUI widget.

A phidget (physical widget) is attached to a host computer via USB. There are various phidgets available, each having a counterpart class in the phidget API. As each phidget is attached to the host computer, it is made available to control in the API, where its state can be accessed and set.
Phidgets arose out of a research project in 2001 directed by Saul Greenberg at the Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary.

Phidgets can be programmed using a variety of software and programming languages, ranging from Java to Microsoft Excel.
The phidget API is what allows systems to access the phidget devices in a high level manner. The API allows the management of devices as they are attached, to subscribe to events and to access the state of the phidgets. The core API is originally written in C and has been extended to work in numerous languages including .NET and Java.

Got this info from Wiki

Flash on the iPhone

Adobe has revealed at AdobeMax2009 that starting from Flash CS5 developers will be able to build applications for the iPhone and that those apps will be available at the Apple Store. So with ActionScript 3 use all the goodies from the iPhone like web access, multitouch, accelerometers, GPS and compass. Woo woo..wow

Adobe Squiggly

Squiggly is a spell checking engine for Adobe® Flash® Player and Adobe AIR®. The Squiggly library allows you to easily add spell checking functionality in any Flex 3 based text control.

Adobe is just doing a preview release of this library for developer community. And this supports only the Flash 10 runtime environment.

Know and check about the Squiggly here.

Important Note from Adobe :- The spelling suggestion algorithm for this release is based on English phonological rules. As such, it should only be used with an English dictionary for checking English text. The plan is to address this limitation in a future release of this project.

ASE - Android Scripting Enivronment

Here is the quick insight about ASE which I saw in Google labs.

The Android Scripting Environment (ASE) brings scripting languages to Android by allowing you to edit and execute scripts and interactive interpreters directly on the Android device. These scripts have access to many of the APIs available to full-fledged Android applications, but with a greatly simplified interface that makes it easy to:

Handle intents
Start activities
Make phone calls
Send text messages
Scan bar codes
Poll location and sensor data
Use text-to-speech
And more

Scripts can be run interactively in a terminal, started as a long running service, or started via Locale. Python, Perl, JRuby, Lua, BeanShell, and shell are currently supported, and we're planning to add more.

Webfinger

WebFinger : Personal Web Discovery, making email addresses readable again.

WebFinger is about making email addresses more valuable, by letting people attach public metadata to them. That metadata might include:

--> public profile data
--> pointer to identity provider (e.g. OpenID server)
--> a public key
--> other services used by that email address (e.g. Flickr, Picasa, Smugmug, Twitter, Facebook, and usernames for each)
--> a URL to an avatar
--> profile data (nickname, full name, etc)
--> whether the email address is also a JID, or explicitly declare that it's NOT an email, and ONLY a JID, or any combination to disambiguate all the addresses that look like something@somewhere.com
--> or even a public declaration that the email address doesn't have public metadata, but has a pointer to an endpoint that, provided authentication, will tell you some protected metadata, depending on who you authenticate as.

... but rather than fight about the exact contents of that file, WebFinger is about making that file discoverable at all. The community can explore and innovate within that discovery file later.

to know more about this check here

Rhonda 3D- Drawing

Rhonda

Adobe Story

Adobe Story! Na!!! its not the story of Adobe..its the new product in the labs of Adobe. :)

I'm quiet excited about this product. Wanna see how Photoshop, Premiere, After Effects and all other products are integrated with this Story to create a movie.


A brief insight of this product from Adobe labs.

What is Adobe Story?

* Adobe Story is a collaborative scriptwriting tool for film, broadcast, and rich media. Adobe Story enables the online pre-production workflow for those who want to collaborate and expand their ideas anytime, anywhere, with anyone.

What is Adobe announcing in regards to Adobe Story?

* Adobe Story is a versatile online and offline application for creating, editing, and optimizing scripts for films, broadcast, and rich media.
* Adobe Story enables you to turn scripts into rich data for a variety of purposes, including enhanced workflow across Adobe Production Premium.
* A public beta version is expected to be available on Adobe Labs in late-2009.

How does Story tie into the plan to playback workflow?

* Adobe Story will be part of the video workflow, tying into the pre-production phases of the process. It will be integrated with other Adobe products, streamlining the flow within the Adobe product family.

My new mobile : Samsung J800

After a good time of readings & findings, finally I bought a new mobile SAMSUNG J800.



It has loads of cool features and is easy to use. The best feature is, 3G capability. :)

Prior to this I had used candy bar & flip models so wanna give a try to a Slide model and to me this is the best considering the features and good value for money.

Features

General
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Length (mm) - 49
Width (mm) - 15.2
Height (mm) - 99
Weight (g) - 100
Warranty (Months) - 12

Display Technology - TFT
Screen size - 2.2 in
Screen Resolution - 176x220

Multimedia Features
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Inbuilt Camera - Yes 2MP
Built-in Microphone ( Mobile ) - Yes
MP3 Player - Yes
Voice Recorder - Yes
Picture Viewer - Yes

Data
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GPRS - Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
EDGE - Class 10, 236.8 kbps
3G - Yes, 384 kbps
Bluetooth - Yes, v2.0 with A2DP
USB - Yes, v2.0

Network Profile
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2G Network - GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network - UMTS 2100

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Messaging - SMS, EMS, MMS, Email, RSS reader
Browser - WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML
Radio - Stereo FM radio with RDS
Games - Yes + downloadable
Java - Yes, MIDP 2.0
Card slot - microSD (TransFlash)

Other Features
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Mobile Tracker
- MP3/AAC/eACC+/WMA player (Can be synched with Windows Media Player)
- MPEG4/3gp player
- T9
- Document viewer (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF)
- RSS Reader
- Organizer (Can be synched with Outlook Express)

Microsoft unveils new controller

Microsoft has unveiled its new control system for the Xbox 360 console, at E3 in Los Angeles.

Project Natal is a fully hands-free control system that will use face recognition and motion sensors to allow users to play games.

Steven Spielberg and Xbox's Don Mattrick on the 'revolutionary' hands-free control system



Lionhead Studios' Peter Molyneux shows a Natal character that recognises and responds to players' moods

Google Wave

Google Wave is a new tool for communication and collaboration on the web, coming later this year.



The info I read about wave on the Google page are

A wave is equal parts conversation and document. People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

A wave is shared. Any participant can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and add participants at any point in the process. Then playback lets anyone rewind the wave to see who said what and when.

A wave is live. With live transmission as you type, participants on a wave can have faster conversations, see edits and interact with extensions in real-time.

Live Collaborative Editing



Natural Language Processing

Incredible INDIA !!!

Zoozoos World's Best Viral AD Campaign

Zoozoos have been crowned the world's best viral ad campaign by Advertising Age.



With 785,160 views, Vodafone's Zoozoos top the chart. Other interesting entry is the Google Chrome AD in the list.

Check here to find more on the stats of other AD's.

Way to go Zoozoos, would love to see you guys in more n more ADs

Zoozoo

Zoozoos these days it seems to be everywhere. The egg headed white humanoids have been entertaining millions of IPL viewers during commercial breaks for some weeks now. It got everyone of us attention and undoubtedly the hot commercial at the moment.

This cute tiny characters are so cute to be watched again and again. The concept of each commercial is made so nice and sweet.













Here's the latest Zoozoo ad for Facebook on Vodafone.

Culture Unplugged Video

View this movie at cultureunplugged.com

World Builder

A beautiful visualization of man who builds a world using holographic tools for the girl he loves. This award winning short was created by filmmaker Bruce Branit. World Builder was shot in a single day followed by about 2 years of post production. Branit is the owner of Branit VFX based in Kansas City.

Musically speaking, the new iPod shuffle!

Apple has come out with another interesting product. The new version of iPod shuffle!!

This is the brief I got from their site...

The world’s smallest music player also happens to be the world’s first talking one. Two things that make the iPod shuffle one amazing device.

1)1.8" tall x 0.3" thin to be exact.
This is the world’s smallest music player, all the controls from iPod shuffle are moved to the earbud cord. It’s also easier to use, with the controls located where you can access them quickly.

2) VoiceOver. Musically speaking, the new iPod shuffle is brilliant, thanks to an exciting new feature called VoiceOver. Say you’re listening to a song and want to know the title or the artist. With the press of a button, VoiceOver tells you as the music dips down. It even announces the names of your playlists. And when your battery needs charging, VoiceOver tells you that, too.

Isn't this 'sounds' cool!? Check out more on the product.

2 colors, 4GB, $79.

Microsoft Office Labs vision 2019

<a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-GB&playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:a517b260-bb6b-48b9-87ac-8e2743a28ec5&showPlaylist=true&from=shared" target="_new" title="Future Vision Montage">Video: Future Vision Montage</a>

The Crisis of Credit Visualised

I was wondering what these guys on news channel, papers n all around me taking about recession and financial crisis..like me there are lot more people who are all confused and find it difficult to understand these things.

Here is a very nice video which explains it better..check it out. Hope you get to know something out of it. :)

And the OSCAR goes to....A.R. Rahman

It's a big dream day for billions of Indians, as music maestro A.R. Rahman has become the first Indian composer to scoop an Oscar for his music in Slumdog Milllionaire.

This is the first time that an Indian has won more than one nomination in Oscar history and also the first Indian music director to won the prestigious award.





The category in which he was awarded are

1. Original Song

Movie: SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Song: "Jai Ho"
Lyric: Gulzar

ACCEPTANCE SPEECH :

I just want to thank again the whole crew of Slumdog Millionaire, especially Danny Boyle for giving such a great opportunity. And the whole, all the people from Mumbai. The essence of the film which is about optimism and the power of hope in the lives, and all my life I had a choice of hate and love. I chose love and I'm here. God bless.



2. Original Score

Movie: SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE

ACCEPTANCE SPEECH :

Before coming, I was excited and terrified. The last time I felt like that was during my marriage. There's a dialogue from a Hindi film called "Mere paas ma hai," which means "I have nothing but I have a mother," so mother's here, her blessings are there with me. I am grateful for her to have come all the way. And I want to thank the Academy for being so kind, all the jury members. I want to thank Sam Schwartz, I/D PR, all the crew of Slumdog, Mr. Gulzar, Raqueeb Alam, Blaaze, my musicians in Chennai and Mumbai. And I want to tell something in Tamil, which says, which I normally say after every award which is... "God is great." Thank you.




JAI HO!!! A.R. Rahman!!! Hearty Congratulations and Wishes to you :)

We wish you bring more this kinda awards to India :)

AR Rahman on the Tonight Show

And BAFTA to ARRahman!! Yay!!!

Google Earth 5.0

Google Earth 5.0 is out there for us to start a tour. Did I say tour..yes!!

This new version has come out with some real cool features.

1. A time machine - you can travel back and check how the places where and how they got transformed now

2. Record tour - you can record your travel from one place to another and playback that.

3. Ocean - Check out what lies beneath the mighty ocean, the layers below the mighty waves..

wasn't this sounds all great!?



Download Google Earth

Yay!!!!! AR Rahman wins Golden Globe

AR RAHMAN the favorite music composer of India won the BEST MUSIC DIRECTOR GOLDEN GLOBE 2009 Award.

His audio tracks for Slumdog Millionaire gave him this honor.

Its indeed a great news for all Indians to cherish, as this is the first time in the film/music industry an Indian is getting this big recognition.



We are all proud of you Rahman, we all love you and your music :)

Apple's New Laptop with No Keyboard