SANTA CLARA, Calif. - If Stanford professor and Oracle evangelist Timothy Chou is right, the future health of the mobile industry will be dependent on the ‘cloud’ — geek-speak for the internet — which currently holds only a fraction of the information that it will contain in the next few years.
In a panel sponsored by Carnegie Mellon and UC Berkeley today, the industry insider predicted that the more ubiquitious mobile cell phones become and the more we start to rely on them, the more wireless networks (and the internet) will need to grow to take on the demand.
But while cloud capacity will revolutionize community applications, providing more info that will be usable via mobile devices, it’s pretty hard to visualize where we stand in terms of total information that is now available. To illustrate how early we are in the process, Dr. Chou threw out some interesting ideas and numbers:
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The current ‘deep web’ of information is approximately 10,000 times the surface of the web, where ‘deep web’ is defined as all the information buried in the hard drives and data networks of the hundreds thousands of businesses and individuals.
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A regular computer tower is 100 times more powerful than the iPhone, so a lot more of the power that we are used to using will go into the cloud.
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Because a lot of the information isn’t in the cloud, many future businesses will use this need to create networks and companies to settle, arrange, and manipulate information in a useful manner.
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"Enterprise 2.0" is all about collective intelligence, or mass collaboration. Bringing social networks to a general audience that benefits from it will be part of the next step for large mobile companies.
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Transaction-oriented systems, like e-commerce and finance applications, will matter even more than they already do. These systems will enhance the overall quality of the ‘cloud’ when the accumulation of intelligent transactions come together. Some of the leading transaction providers are the NYSE (with 10 million transactions per day), Visa (100M per day), and Google (with 200M transactions per day). When these systems build on the search and buying patterns of individuals, the intelligence of the applications on the back end will know way more. For example, almost all of Amazon is more about managing information, rather a large shopping cart. But the more it builds upon your tastes, the closer it will get to create a satisfying transaction intelligence for the individual user.
So if you’re the type that goes to the same grocery store, weekend after endless weekend, you won’t be able to lie to your significant other later in life that you used to only eat tasty organic grapes and nuts. She’ll know all about the chips, the beer, and the endless collection of meat.
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Now that the iPhone is as popular as sliced bread, the wrongdoers have come out in full force to make a quick buck from the handset’s popularity. Recent user reports suggest that many aftermarket and third party iPhone car chargers and FM transmitters are bricking the handsets. These are the types of accessories that generally come from the shady eBay retailers that sell cellphone accessories by the gross, but nevertheless, people are falling victim to the low prices.
A couple Canadian iPhone users are reporting that plugging the iPhone into a third-party peripheral is causing the handheld to go black, overheat and even begin smoking in some cases. With that being said, you’ve already spent hundreds of dollars on a cellphone, why not fork over $50 for officially licensed accessories?
iPhone Car Chargers Can Brick your iPhone! [iPhone in Canada]
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Apparently not satisfied with simply building
robotic body parts, the Department of Defense has now announced a brand new effort that it hopes will one day allow it to regrow actual body parts. Dubbed the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine (or AFIRM), the new group will explore the use of stem cell research, among other things, to “reconstruct new skin, muscles and tendons, and even ears, noses and fingers.”
Or, as the Army surgeon general that’ll be overseeing the program puts it: if an animal like a salamander can regrow a lost tail or limb, “Why can’t a mammal do the same thing?” Not surprisingly, the institute apparently also won’t be hard up for resources, with it boasting a budget of about $250 million for its first five-year period, and it enlisting the help of three universities, including
Rutgers, Wake Forest, and the University of Pittsburgh.
[Via Slashdot]
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LaCie has bumped up its line of rugged hard drives with this 500GB model, imaginatively called the LaCie Rugged Hard Disk. Portable storage solutions are a dime-a-dozen nowadays, but what makes this one quite exceptional is the means LaCie has taken to protect the hard drive.
Inside of the tiny package is a 2.5-inch hard drive that is protected with anti-shock rubber bumpers, a protective aluminum shell and a shock-resistant rubber sleeve. So yes, this drive can take the daily wear and tear as you throw it in a bag and take it out repeatedly throughout the day. The new and improved 500GB capacity means this tiny drive has more than enough room for all of those completely legal files you regularly transport from computer to computer. Better yet, it’s available in USB 2.0, FireWire 800 and FireWire 400 flavors. Prices begin at $340 for the USB 2.0 model.
LaCie Rugged Hard Disk 500GB [LaCie]
The people at LM3Labs have created a hologram technology that can be controlled by hand, arm and (presumably) penis gestures. The system is called AirStrike, which conjures up images of a massive bombing run and not doing it with Princess Leia while a trashcan robot watches like I hoped. So I’m going to have to suggest they change the name to something a little more catchy. You know, something that gives potential customers a better idea of how the technology can be utilized. I’m thinking My Virtual Prostitute or maybe just Holowhore.
LM3Labs’ Airstrike interactive holograms, because they can [engadget]
Thanks to Ryan, who doesn’t need a holographic girlfriend because he can have as many of the real thing as he wants, for the tip
Here’s a casemod that would make even Jonny Ive proud. Fashioned from two sheets of white acrylic and lined with perforated steel, this desktop system was actually an old and busted Apple PowerBook — that is before Richard Hunt worked his modding magic. Hunt removed the PowerBook’s guts and delicately placed them inside this slick hand-built case. The result, one must admit, looks like something Apple might ship itself.
As Hunt explains, there are even some added benefits of transferring laptop parts into a roomier desktop home:
Cool side effects: The machine has its own built-in UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) because it still retains the original laptop battery. The machine runs much cooler, thanks to all the extra space. So you could add a much bigger heat sink/fan and overclock it (I didn’t).
The project wasn’t without its challenges, but Hunt’s casemod clearly demonstrates you can do some pretty amazing things even with out-dated hardware.
[Macmod via Technabob]
Filed under: Laptops
Alright peoples, how many Eee PC knockoffs do we really need? Is 10 enough? How about 100? There seems to be no end in sight, and here comes the relatively unknown 3K Computers to give it a whirl. We’d say the first mistake is the 7-inch screen, gotsa stay ahead of the curve. Pair that with the 400MHz processor and a $400 pricetag and we haven’t the slightest idea why we’d go in for this little Linux-based boringbook. Oh, wait… nope, we got nothing.
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Ermine and Ramazan Çalçoban were a Turkish couple going through a separation. Like any normal unhealthy couple, they continued to harass the shit out of each other via text message. Until one day Ramazan sent a text message that, thanks to his cell phone not having a “closed i” (ı) character, proved disastrous.
The use of “i” resulted in an SMS with a completely twisted meaning: instead of writing the word “sıkısınca” it looked like he wrote “sikisince.” Ramazan wanted to write “You change the topic every time you run out of arguments” (sounds familiar enough) but what Emine read was, “You change the topic every time they are f***ing you.
WARNING: Sad story follows.
Uh oh, not good. Emine showed the text to her father, who called Ramazan and threatened him for insinuating his daughter was a dirty strumpet. Ramazan shows up confused but ready to apologize, and is stabbed by Emine’s father and two sisters. Badly injured, Ramazan tried to escape while Emine attempted to finish him off. At the door he managed to pull a knife out of his chest and stab her before fleeing into the street, where he was picked up by police. Emine bled to death awaiting an ambulance. Ramazan, still confused as to what happened, killed himself in jail.
Damn, like a modern Romeo and Juliet.
R.I.P. Ermine and Ramazan.
A Cellphone’s Missing Dot Kills Two People, Three More in Jail [gizmodo]
Thanks to Jaden, who is a very careful texter, for the tip
Filed under: GPS
Ever the one to find a
somewhat unique selling point for its
GPS units, NDrive has now announced a pair of new devices that employ what the company claims to be the “world’s first photo mapping system.” That slightly
dubious claim aside, the new G280 and G800 units certainly look like they’ll get the job done and then some, with them each boasting visual and audible speed camera alerts, a pedestrian mode for out-of-vehicle use, and of course the usual range of PMP features with an SD card slot provided for expansion. The G800 also takes things a couple of steps further with built-in Bluetooth and an FM transmitter to pump audio through your vehicle’s speakers. No word on a release ’round these parts, but those in the UK will apparently be able to grab ‘em later this month for £199 and £315 ($400 and $630) for the G280 and G800, respectively.
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Filed under: Robots, Wearables
After launching its world-beating i-LIMB prosthetic hand last year, Touch Bionics is taking things in a different direction with the “Fluidhand.” The new hand uses miniature hydraulics to flex the fingers, and can better interact with objects — like grasping things with irregular surfaces — than the five motor i-LIMB. Fludihand is also designed to have a more natural feel than previous prosthetics, and gives feedback to the stump to let the user sense the strength of the grip. Currently Fluidhand is just in the prototype stage, with one patient so far testing both prosthetics against each other in a battle to the death.
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SANTA CLARA, Calif. - If Stanford professor and Oracle evangelist Timothy Chou is right, the future health of the mobile industry will be dependent on the ‘cloud’ — geek-speak for the internet — which currently holds only a fraction of the information that it will contain in the next few years. 
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