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<title>Haaze.com / erneesters / Published News</title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com</link>
<description>Test Web 2.0 Content Management System</description>
<pubDate>Wed, 06 Apr 2011 07:10:42 +0000</pubDate>
<language>en</language>
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<title><![CDATA[AT&T still No. 1 on dropped calls, but iPhone owners seem satisifed]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=att-still-no--1-on-dropped-calls-but-iphone-owners-seem-satisifed</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=att-still-no--1-on-dropped-calls-but-iphone-owners-seem-satisifed</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 06 Apr 2011 07:10:42 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>erneesters</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=att-still-no--1-on-dropped-calls-but-iphone-owners-seem-satisifed</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The AT&amp;amp'TiPhone 4 drops more calls than Verizon's model, yet customers of both carriers seem about equally satisifed, according to a ChangeWave Research study released yesterday.Questioning a total of 4,068 mobile phone users in a survey completed March 28, ChangeWave found that 82 percent of the Verizon Wireless iPhone 4 owners polled and 80 percent of those using AT&amp;amp'T's iPhone 4 said they were very satisified overall. The Verizon iPhone has been on the market since February, when it ended AT&amp;T's long run of exclusivity for the Apple gadget.But aside from the neck-and-neck satisfaction levels, Verizon holds in the upper hand in other key ways.(Credit:ChangeWave Research)Among iPhone 4 users, Verizon scored the fewest dropped calls, with those surveyed reporting on average only 1.8 percent of all calls dropped over the past 90 days. That compared with AT&amp;amp'T iPhone 4 owners who said that on average 4.8 percent of all their calls were dropped over the same period.The survey, which also looked at T-Mobile and Sprint, found that Verizon led the pack overall in the lowest number of dropped calls across the industry. Verizon mobile phone customers in general reported that on average only 1.4 percent of their calls dropped over the past 90 days. T-Mobile took second place with 2.3 percent dropped calls, followed by Sprint with 2.7 percent.That again left AT&amp;amp'T to bring up the rear, with its mobile phone subscribers pointing to a average of 4.6 percent of all calls dropped over the past 90 days.(Credit:ChangeWave Research)Dropped calls have plagued AT&amp;amp'T and its customers for a number of years, contributing to the carrier's often poor grades for customer satisfaction. In response, the company has made some effort in recent years to strengthen the performance and reliability of its network.In a survey from December, ChangeWave discovered that AT&amp;amp'T had improved its level of dropped calls from a high of 6 percent last September. The current survey, which included 1,264 AT&amp;amp'T customers, found that the dropped call rate had improved further, albeit by only a tenth of a percentage point.At the same time, the number of dropped calls among the 1,283 Verizon customers included in the survey has shrunk to its lowest level ever seen by ChangeWave.Verizon also outscored AT&amp;amp'T with future iPhone owners. Among those who plan to buy an iPhone 4 down the road, 46 percent said they'll go with Verizon, while only 27 percent are eyeing AT&amp;amp'T.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[How to use iOS parental controls]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=how-to-use-ios-parental-controls</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=how-to-use-ios-parental-controls</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 24 Mar 2011 07:10:24 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>erneesters</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=how-to-use-ios-parental-controls</guid>
<description><![CDATA[A $1,400 iTunes bill racked up by an 8-year-old buying Smurfberries in Smurfs' Village might be enough for parents to forbid their kids from using mobile technology. Since this case--and several others like it--resulted in people receiving ridiculous bills, the Federal Trade Commission announced it will be reviewing Apple's in-app purchasing policies.With the newly released iOS 4.3, Apple swiftly updated its policy, prompting users to enter a password each time something like a level-up, Tap Tap Revenge song, or $20 barrel of stars in Tap Zoo is purchased. Previously, Apple gave users a 15-minute window for in-app purchases after a password was entered.Although this is the only forced form of parental control (or self-control if you're so guilty), iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches do have other settings, known as Restrictions. Here's how to fine-tune these settings:<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[The art of making Google Art Project (Q&A)]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=the-art-of-making-google-art-project-qa</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=the-art-of-making-google-art-project-qa</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 08 Feb 2011 08:10:55 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>erneesters</dc:creator>
<category>Gaming</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=the-art-of-making-google-art-project-qa</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Last week, Google unveiled Art Project, an effort to bring works from 17 of the great museums of the world to a global audience. (Credit:Google)Last week, Google unveiled a Street View-esque project that brings viewers face to face with some of the greatest art on earth.Known as Google Art Project, the initiative will give users remote access to the priceless paintings, sculptures, and other artifacts from 17 of the world's most famous museums, including New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and Museum of Modern Art, London's National Gallery and Tate Britain, the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, and others.In a blog post announcing the effort, Amit Sood, head of the Google Art Project, explained that users will have initial access to at least 1,000 works from the 17 museums, including one from each institution that will be presented in high-resolution using &quot;'gigapixel' photo-capturing technology.&quot; The project is based, in part, Sood said, on Google's Street View technology.(Credit:Schematic)But Google didn't do this project on its own. Rather, it partnered with a company called Schematic, which helped integrate many of the technologies that together form Google Art Project, and which took on a lot of the heavy lifting in dealing with the various museums. Yesterday, Jason Brush, the executive vice president for user experience at Schematic, sat down for a 45 Minutes on IM interview about the effort, and talked about working with some of the greatest art collections ever put together, about collaborating with Googlers trying to do exciting things with their &quot;20 percent&quot; time, and about the challenges of building a powerful experience around what could be some people's first-ever interaction with some of the most important paintings in history.Q: Thanks very much for joining me for this. I appreciate it. Maybe you could start by telling me what it felt like to learn you were going to be instrumental in bringing some of the world's greatest art to a global audienceJason Brush: First, I was awestruck by the idea itself, which the Googlers with whom we collaborated on the project had invented. It was a project that really reflects the full potential of what the Web can achieve, and is the sort of concept that got me interested in new media to begin with. I could just imagine a child at a public library, somewhere in the world, who might never be able to afford airfare to travel to these museums, and who might not even have access to high-quality reproductions in books, being able to wander the halls of the great museums that the site brings together. It was a real honor to be brought on board by Amit Sood, who led the project at Google.For a lot of people, this could be their first-ever interaction with some of the world's great art, as you suggested above. How much pressure did you feel to make sure that their experience was a good oneBrush: I've worked on projects before that were groundbreaking, for which there was a great deal of pressure to get the experience right--the site we built to broadcast the Beijing Olympics online, for example--but this was different. For some reason the pressure on this project was different--I'm sure for everybody involved. Partially, it was because of the restraints. It wasn't just a matter of putting up the artwork and making it accessible. There was also a lot of pressure to make sure that we weren't making any explicit curatorial decisions. An interface can of course say something specific in and of itself, and we worked very hard to make sure that we weren't imposing a point of view on the display of artwork.Talk a little more about the pressure not to make explicit curatorial decisions. Why not, and how did you resist making decisions like thatBrush: Well, one of the first issues we had to face was making sure that the site wasn't itself a meta-museum. The museums themselves have the cultural and civic onus to present the artworks in their collections in whatever way that's appropriate to their mission. We didn't want to usurp that. So, the pressure stemmed from not just making sure that the site was enjoyable and easy-to-use because of it's cultural value, but also because we needed to create a model that drew a clear distinction between the live, in-person museum-going experience--which we hope the site will encourage people to have--and the experience you get online. We were in essence creating a whole new model for viewing art, which was a great responsibility.Tell me a great story about working with these museumsBrush: At Schematic, we didn't work directly with the museums--the photography of the artworks and the capture of the Street View imagery was coordinated by Google, with the help of some other partners. So, we didn't have much interaction with the museums themselves.The museums that are involved hadn't worked all together before on this kind of project. What was it like to help coordinate them workingBrush: This was indeed one of the notable feats of the project--creating a forum that all the many institutions could participate in. This also was handled by the team at Google. So, while we weren't involved in the negotiations, we did make some design decisions vis-a-vis unique aggregation of content from many museums. For instance, on the home page, we chose to randomize which museum gets highlighted on load. We didn't want it always to be the museum at the top of the list.From your perspective, how much does this collection miss having the Mona LisaBrush: I think you could make the same statement about, say, Picasso's &quot;Guernica,&quot; but I don't think that the site as a whole suffers per se from not having certain artworks. it's really up to the museums to decide what they want to make available. I hope the catalog expands, but I don't think that the achievement is diminished at all by the fact that it doesn't house every world famous painting. And of course, some artists' work--James Turrell, Richard Serra, Olafur Eliasson--needs to be experienced in person.Google Art Project: Street View goes to the museum (images) Talk about the future of the project. I assume, well, I hope, that more museums will be added. What's the story with expansionBrush: With expansion, I can't say. I haven't heard anything from Amit Sood, who is really the mastermind behind the project, about what's next.It seems you had a full grab bag of Google APIs to integrate as part of this project. Did you have some say in which ones were included. And how did you choose which pieces Brush: The site indeed makes use of a huge range of Google APIs. The way we evaluated what APIs to use was to first design the experience, and then to see if an API was available that could achieve what we needed. As it happened, we were able to build the site pretty much entirely using publicly available APIs. The two pieces Schematic didn't build were the &quot;microscope&quot; viewer, which allows you to zoom into the artwork, and the customized version of Street View. Both of these were built by the team at Google--&quot;certifiable geniuses&quot; as our tech lead calls them--and then integrated into the UI framework we designed and built. So, as a whole, we were able to use the APIs pretty fluidly.Can you talk about how the project presents the artworks in both Street View mode and directly--what were some of the issues involved in deciding how to do thatBrush: This was the trickiest part of the whole site to build. We knew that we needed to load in the separate viewer to zoom into the artwork, and so we created links within Street View that you could click on to load the image viewer. The challenge here was twofold: first, placing the links reliably vis-a-vis the artwork in Street View--we didn't want them overlapping the images--and then knowing which artwork to link them to. In the end, we built a custom tool to map artworks in Street View to their gigapixel counterparts. But much of the mapping had to be done manually, which was quite painstaking.Also, in normal Street View, head-up displays are normalized. Here, we needed to strike a balance between making the links readable, while avoiding them distracting from the gallery experience. To do this, we built a system to assign different sized links inside a gallery, depending on its decor. More ornate rooms got bigger, bolder icons' minimalist rooms got smaller ones.Last question, and it's my standard closer. I like to do these interviews in IM for several reasons: First, I get a perfect transcript. And also, my subject can be more thoughtful and articulate than maybe they would be on the phone or in person. But finally, it's because IM allows for multitasking. So, tell me: what else were you doing while we were doing thisBrush: Basking in the sunlight of our mercifully mild Los Angeles winter.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Back to the Future '4', now playing on your PC]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=back-to-the-future-4-now-playing-on-your-pc</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=back-to-the-future-4-now-playing-on-your-pc</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 13 Jan 2011 08:10:27 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>erneesters</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=back-to-the-future-4-now-playing-on-your-pc</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Hey, this isn't how it happened! Or is it(Credit:Telltale)Editor's note: Yes, Episode One of Back to the Future: The Game was released over two weeks ago and yes, this is our first attempt at coverage. Send your complaints to the holiday break and CES. We'll make sure coverage (if any) of the subsequent episodes is more timely.Collectively I've probably seen the &quot;Back to the Future&quot; movies over 100 times. The first movie especially, was a seminal film for me and captured my imagination like no other before it. Thanks to HBO, which showed it literally twice daily during the summer of 1986, I developed what can only be described as an addiction to it.While parts 2 and 3 didn't have quite the same effect on me, I love them both still, warts and all. Since the release of Part 3, there have been a few attempts at expanding the Back to the Future universe--I'm still trying to forget the Saturday morning cartoon--but all have failed to capture the magic of the movies. Back to the Future: The Game (BTTF) feels like it belongs in this universe. Feeling like a continuation of the storyline that ended after Doc Brown took off in his flying hell train of death. This is probably the closest we'll ever come to a Back to the Future 4 and I'm completely fine with that.Within seconds upon my first launch of the game, it was already playing my nostalgic heartstrings masterfully, using the iconic piano chime that starts both part 2 and 3.From a gameplay perspective, BTTF is an adventure game in the vein of classic Lucasarts adventures like the Monkey Island series. The game begins with a scene that fans of the movies will immediately recognize' Doc Brown's first demonstration to Marty of the time machine and while I wont spoil what happens next, let's just say things don't quite go the way they did originally.Back to the Future: The Game (photos) These events set Marty (the player) off on an adventure that takes him to Hill Valley, 1931 with Doc Brown's life at stake.The puzzles aren't as zany as some of the old Lucasarts ones and feel somewhat more logical. As a result, the puzzles are in general, fairly easy' however, there were a couple that compelled me to use the game's great built-in hint system. The hint system gives you progressively more straightforward hints each time you use it. The last tier, basically spelling out &quot;give X to Y, to get desired result&quot;. A great tool for those that just want to fly through to get the story. Graphically, the game has a stylized art style that takes some getting used to, but I've come to love it over my 3 hours or so with this first episode. Christopher Lloyd returns to voice Doc Brown (and possibly one other character) and AJ LoCasio takes on voice of Marty McFly, delivering an incredibly accurate impression.Controls also took some getting used to and were more than a little frustrating especially during scenes where the camera angle changes constantly. Luckily, Marty will b-line to areas of interest when you click on them.This first of five episodes can be finished within about three to four hours and for $24.99 you get all five episodes to be released over the next few months. There's not a lot a lot of replay value here, but that's par for the course with games of this genre. As I insinuated before, I absolutely love this world and its characters. BTTF builds on that established lore without besmirching it. Fans of the series should not hesitate to buy this up. If you're not a fan--well, come on. Who's not a fan <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Exhibit features scorched, mangled Apple gear]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=exhibit-features-scorched-mangled-apple-gear</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=exhibit-features-scorched-mangled-apple-gear</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 22 Dec 2010 08:10:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>erneesters</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=exhibit-features-scorched-mangled-apple-gear</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The iPad in &amp;quot'Book Burning&amp;quot' has seen better days. (Credit:Michael Tompert and Paul Fairchild)Warning: brand-new Apple products were harmed in the making of the 12LVE photography exhibit. As in run over by a train, shot up with bullets, and burned with a blowtorch. Michael Tompert, a San Francisco-area digital-imaging and CGI artist, purchased the gadgets with the express intent of destroying them, then photographing them. His aim was to make a provocative yet humorous (if costly) statement on consumers' attachment to their shiny new electronic toys. Especially wildly popular ones of the Apple variety. Destroyed Apple products as art (photos)   12LVE includes 12 giant high-resolution digital photos of mangled Apple products, including aniPhone 3G, an iPhone 4, aniPad, MacBook Airs, andiPod Nanos, photographed by Tompert's friend Paul Fairchild.  The colorful and surprisingly striking prints are currently on display at the WhiteSpace Gallery, located inside the hat store Brim in Palo Alto, Calif., not far from Apple's headquarters in Cupertino.    &quot;The images are large-scale yet microscopic, providing a canvas for contemplating our relationship with fetish, fashion, freedom, and bondage,&quot; reads a statement by the artist, who originally hails from Stuttgart, Germany.  While Apple fans aghast at the sight of mutilated iGear might be quick to label Tompert an Apple hater, the artist previously worked as part of the company's graphic-design team and stresses that he's been an Apple fan since the early days. In fact, the idea for 12LVE, he has said, came from watching his two sons fight over a game on an iPod Touch he gave them for Christmas. Tired of their squabbling and wanting to make the point that the gadget was just that--a gadget--he grabbed the device and threw it to the ground.  &quot;They were kind of stunned--the screen was broken, and this liquid poured out of it. I got my camera to shoot it,&quot; Tompert told the Los Angeles Times. The innards were beautiful in an odd sort of way. &quot;My wife told me that I should do something with it,&quot; Tompert said. So he started amassing Apple products, finding creative ways to kill them, then hauling their carcasses into the studio for photography shoots with Fairchild. And in case you've ever wanted to see what a MacBook Air looks like with a gun to its head, Cult of Mac has some great shots of the making of 12LVE. These shots, we should caution, may severely traumatize Apple devotees.  &amp;34'Caltrain Fatalities: Left Track/Right Track.&amp;34' Here's what it looks like when a train runs over a bunch of iPad Nanos.(Credit:Michael Tompert and Paul Fairchild) <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Live blog Tuesday: Google Chrome event]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=live-blog-tuesday-google-chrome-event</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=live-blog-tuesday-google-chrome-event</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 06 Dec 2010 08:10:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>erneesters</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=live-blog-tuesday-google-chrome-event</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Google has invited us to an obscure corner of San Francisco tomorrow for a special announcement concerning Chrome. It all starts at 10:30 a.m. Pacific Time, and we'll be live-blogging the event from Dogpatch Studios. What the announcement will be, exactly, we don't know yet. Chrome OS is Google's browser-based operating system that runs Web applications only. It's unlikely that Chrome will be ready for Netbooks this year as earlier promised, but the Chrome team might be demonstrating a near-final version for us. Or, it's possible Google is ready to take the wraps off its Web-based version of an app store, called the Chrome Web Store.Be sure to come back here tomorrow morning, or sign up below for a reminder e-mail.Google Chrome event<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Retailers using Net to lure Black Friday shoppers]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=retailers-using-net-to-lure-black-friday-shoppers</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=retailers-using-net-to-lure-black-friday-shoppers</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 18 Nov 2010 08:10:09 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>erneesters</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=retailers-using-net-to-lure-black-friday-shoppers</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:Shop.org)Looking to entice shoppers on Black Friday, retail companies are using e-mail, the Web, and social networks to spread the word about their hottest deals.Recent results from the National Retail Federation's Shop.org eHoliday survey found that more than half of the retailers polled will send out special e-mails to customers announcing Black Friday deals.Around 31 percent will use their own Web sites to promote those deals, while 39 percent will hit shoppers through their Facebook pages, and 21 percent will tap into their Twitter feeds.&quot;The rules for Black Friday have changed significantly,&quot; NRF CEO Matthew Shay said in a statement. &quot;Instead of waiting until Thanksgiving Day to announce their promotions, many retailers are getting shoppers excited about Black Friday by offering sneak peeks of deals in advance, using social media to create buzz, or teasing upcoming deals on their websites.&quot; Eyeing discounts on electronic gizmos and other potential presents, the NRF's Black Friday shopping survey discovered that up to 138 million people could hit the stores Black Friday weekend (November 26-28). Among those, 60 million people said they'll definitely venture out that weekend, while another 78 million will wait and see if the deals are worth the effort.For people willing to battle the traffic and crowds, the NRF has compiled a list of tips and tricks for Black Friday shopping.Shop.org's eHoliday study, conducted by BIGresearch, questioned 51 online retailers from September 1 to 27, while the NRF's 2010 Black Friday shopping survey reached out to 8,778 consumers from November 3 to 9.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Intellitar avatars a poor substitute for afterlife]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=intellitar-avatars-a-poor-substitute-for-afterlife</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=intellitar-avatars-a-poor-substitute-for-afterlife</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 08 Nov 2010 08:10:15 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>erneesters</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=intellitar-avatars-a-poor-substitute-for-afterlife</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Of the products I've seen recently, Intellitar's Virtual Eternity is the most likely to make children cry. It is a service, which recently released its beta, in which you create an AI-based animated avatar from a picture of yourself and the answers to a questionnaire. Why So you can bequeath this cloud-based avatar to your descendants. They can then ask your avatar questions about your life, which it will answer by animating virtual lips on a picture of your real face, with a generic voice (unless you pay extra to have the service create a custom voice library from speech elements you record into the system). The idea is to keep the virtual you alive long after the actual you has powered down for good. And no, I am not copying from the TV Guide description of &quot;Caprica.&quot; The problem: it's creepy. Both for me and the co-workers I showed it to, it elicited a visceral negative reaction. To be fair, I did not actually show it to any children, but that's because I can't imagine doing so. Even CEO Don Davidson acknowledges that his company's avatars reside in an &quot;uncanny valley.&quot; That's the place on the spectrum of animation that lies outside the clearly drawn and clearly alive--and that freaks people out by being neither.The head of my Virtual Eternity avatar bobs gently and realistically while it waits for questions to answer. However, it doesn&amp;39't sound like me, my teeth aren&amp;39't nearly that straight, and the avatar creation module couldn&amp;39't handle my facial hair. It kept putting my teeth in the middle of my upper lip. I had to use this old picture of my clean-shaven self to get the product to work.But, Davidson said, the technology will improve. The creepiness will be fixed.In the meantime, take my virtual wife. Please.Perhaps there is something to the idea of creating an avatar for your loved ones to interact with. Putting aside the crude avatar, though, the way that Virtual Eternity goes about it is far too basic. This product asks you to answer a series of questions--and optionally lets your create your own question/answer sets. From that data, it creates a chatbot that can hold a rudimentary conversation about the facts you've given it. I found the chatbot got tripped up far too easily, though.I asked Davidson if his technology could instead take our already-existing online personalities as we constantly reveal them to Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, blogs, and other online repositories, and extract from them the answers to users' questions. I'm thinking especially questions about relationships and beliefs, which is what I would guess our descendants will want most to know about us. That's not in Virtual Eternity, though. You can't link your avatar to the virtual personality you've already created. Davidson said you can, though, create a little family social network with your avatar, in order to build a basic genealogical system so your descendants will be able to figure out who's who in your family tree.I think the Virtual Eternity product is all wrong--wrong technology, wrong market, wrong idea. But there may yet be some business possibilities at Intellitar that use the avatar technology. As educational technology, it has potential. Already, Davidson said, the technology is being used in museums to animate historical figures. And as an add-on to virtual world games, there might be something here too--maybe you could leave your avatar behind in the virtual world while you continue to live a real life in the real world. Davidson said three additional products based on the Intellitar product are planned for release within six months. Hopefully they're more useful and less disturbing than Virtual Eternity. You can speak with Davidson's own VE Intellitar.See also: Sitepal, Venuegen. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Ordered on iPads, meals are delivered to the gate at NY airports - Springwise]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ordered-on-ipads-meals-are-delivered-to-the-gate-at-ny-airports---springwise</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ordered-on-ipads-meals-are-delivered-to-the-gate-at-ny-airports---springwise</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>erneesters</dc:creator>
<category>Food</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ordered-on-ipads-meals-are-delivered-to-the-gate-at-ny-airports---springwise</guid>
<description><![CDATA[We''ve seen all kinds of airport innovations designed to make travelling less of a chore, but Delta Air Lines and  airport restaurant operator OTG Management have just launched an initiative sure to please weary passengers at New Yorka4a4s JFK and LaGuardia airports. Specifically, travellers can use Apple iPad kiosks stationed near their departure gates to order meals from participating airport restaurants, with delivery to the gate guaranteed within 10 minutes.  As of just a few weeks ago, the new food ordering stations have been installed at gates 21 and 22 in JFK Terminal 2 and at gate 15 in JFK Terminal 3' stations are planned for gates 1 and 2 of LaGuardiaa4a4s Terminal D later this year. Upon placing their order using a custom iPad application, customers are informed of their meal delivery time to ensure the food is received before their flight takes off, though it can also be taken to go' either way, orders are delivered by OTG servers within 10 minutes. Also available on the iPads are reportedly a variety of other applications that let travellers check flights and play games, for example. The newly designed gate dining areas, meanwhile, accommodate both single and group travelers, and most seats are outfitted with power outlets for charging electronics. The new initiative is part of a series of investments Delta is making in the New York market, including a recently announced USD 1.2 billion plan to enhance and expand JFK Terminal 4.  Security regulations have taken such a toll on passenger convenience at airports today, it''s nice to see an airline doing something to make up for it. This one needs to be emulated as soon as possible at airports around the globe! (Related: Free spray tans at Gatwick Airport a4&quot; Portland airport installs bike assembly station for travellers a4&quot; Singapore airport''s four-storey slide rewards duty-free spending a4&quot; De Botton''s airport diary launched at Heathrow today a4&quot; Heineken offers first class airport lounge for all a4&quot; Free dance lessons at Paris airports a4&quot; Suitcases &amp; pad thai.)Website: www.delta.com a4&quot; www.otgmanagement.comContact: www.delta.com/help/contact_us/corporate_information/index.jsp a4&quot; info@otgmanagement.comSpotted by: airlinetrends.com <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[In The Era Of The Connected Camera, The Point &amp' Shoot Commits&nbsp'Seppuku]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=in-the-era-of-the-connected-camera-the-point-amp-shoot-commitsnbspseppuku</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=in-the-era-of-the-connected-camera-the-point-amp-shoot-commitsnbspseppuku</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>erneesters</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=in-the-era-of-the-connected-camera-the-point-amp-shoot-commitsnbspseppuku</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The big brand camera companies are&amp;nbsp'committing&amp;nbsp'seppuku in front of our eyes. It&amp;'s fascinating.Last week, I bought a brand new Canon S95 camera. It&amp;'s a great point &amp;amp' shoot. Maybe the best out there right now. It captures beautiful 10-megapixel images. It&amp;'s great in low-light. It&amp;'s fast. And it shoots HD video. I anticipate I&amp;'ll take about 5 percent of my pictures with it in the coming year.&amp;nbsp'The other 95 percent will be taken with my iPhone. How do I know Because I had the S90 last year and that was my exact usage pattern.Obviously, the 10-megapixel, $400 S95 is the superior camera when compared to the 5-megapixel, $200 (with subsidy) iPhone 4. But the fact that I always have my phone on me easily trumps the specs. But to me, there&amp;'s actually something other than just the portability factor that leads to my usage being so heavily skewed towards the iPhone: connectivity.Smartphones are always connected. Point &amp;amp' shoots never are. When I take a cool picture, I often want to share it right away. With my smartphone, it takes 20 seconds. With my point &amp;amp' shoot, it&amp;'s impossible. I have to wait until I get home, upload it to my computer, then upload it to the web.It shouldn&amp;'t be surprising at all that smartphones are eating point &amp;amp' shoots&amp;' lunch when it comes to percentage of pictures uploaded to sites like Flickr. Currently, the most popular camera in the Flickr community is the iPhone 3G. Below that are several prosumer-level DSLRs. There are no point &amp;amp' shoots on the top list.And if you look at the popular point &amp;amp' shoot list, you&amp;'ll see that all of them are trending downward. Fast. Meanwhile, cameraphones are going the opposite way. Soon, I imagine that several Android phones will join the iPhones at the top of the popular list.It&amp;'s a little dumbfounding that point &amp;amp' shoots have been so slow to hop on the connectivity and social bandwagon. The iPhone is now three and a half years old, and plenty of people were taking picture with their crappy RAZR phones and uploading them to the web years before that. The writing has been on the wall for a long time.It stands to reason that as smartphone cameras continue to improve, they were going to squeeze out point &amp;amp' shoots anyway. We&amp;'re heading towards a world where the smartphone is the everyday camera and the DSLR is the special occassion camera. But we&amp;'re not there yet. I still have some need for a good point &amp;amp' shoot. And so do plenty of other people a4&quot; the S95 is currently the 19th best-selling electronic on Amazon heading into the holiday shopping season.But the big camera companies like Canon almost seem like they want to speed the process of killing point &amp;amp' shoot camera along. They just don&amp;'t seem to get it.&amp;''Point and shoot has become point and shoot and share,&amp;'' Twitter&amp;'s Josh Elman tweeted earlier. &amp;''It&amp;'s sad that cameras haven&amp;'t evolved to be networked and make sharing easier. I&amp;'m shopping for a new camera now and very disappointed,&amp;'' he continued.Elman must be going through the same process I went through a couple weeks ago. With no better solution, I ultimately settled on a sort hacked-together one: the S95 with an SD card from Eye-Fi that will add WiFi capabilities to your device. It&amp;'s okay. It does allow you to share photos when you take them a4&quot; provided you&amp;'re connected to WiFi. WiFi which you have to configure on your card via your computer beforehand. In other words, unless you&amp;'re at home, it&amp;'s not much of a solution.Further, given that everything else in the world is hopping on the geolocation bandwagon, you would have thought that the point &amp;amp' shoot makers would at least go there with GPS chips. Nope. Again, the only solution for most of these cameras is the Eye-Fi card. And again, it&amp;'s a pretty lame solution. Instead of using a combination of GPS and WiFi to get your location and pin it to a picture like most smartphones do, the EyeFi card simply records the nearest WiFi router address and it will only tag it to your photo if you run it through their (rather lame) software when you get home.Ugh.And don&amp;'t get me wrong, what Eye-Fi is doing is rather amazing given what they&amp;'re working with. They&amp;'ve essentially hacked the memory card input to make these cameras somewhat connected. But there really needs to be some sort of native hardware/software solution.I know that there are some &amp;''social&amp;'' point &amp;amp' shoots out there, like Kodak&amp;'s EasyShare products. But the reviews of those things range from mixed to poor. If I&amp;'m going to spend the extra money, I want it to be on the best point &amp;amp' shoot. Like the S95. Sadly, I can&amp;'t have the best of both worlds. And I&amp;'m not sure I&amp;'ll ever be able to until after the smartphones have already killed the genre.In the smartphone world right now, we&amp;'re already evolving to the next phase. We&amp;'re seeing an explosion of interest is social apps built solely around the camera. Instagram, Hipstamatic, Picplz, Path, DailyBooth, CameraBag, Treehouse, IncrediBooth, Diptic, Burstn, etc. There are hundreds of apps with new ones launching each day. The point &amp;amp' shoot hasn&amp;'t even entered phase one yet. It&amp;'s really pretty pathetic.CrunchBase InformationCanonEye-FiiPhone 4Information provided by CrunchBase<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[AMD chases Intel into gadget market with embedded chips]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=amd-chases-intel-into-gadget-market-with-embedded-chips</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=amd-chases-intel-into-gadget-market-with-embedded-chips</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>erneesters</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=amd-chases-intel-into-gadget-market-with-embedded-chips</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Intel has focused its Atom microprocessor on new kinds of devices from netbooks to tablet computers. Advanced Micro Devices is now launching a new version of its Fusion chips &amp;8212' which combine a processor and graphics in the same chip &amp;8212' to go after the same market.This means we&amp;'ll likely see smarter and smarter internet-connected gadgets in the future. Shane Rau, an analyst at IDC, expects this market segment to grow at a double-digit rate in the next five years.The new AMD Embedded G-Series platform uses the first Accelerated Processor Unit (APU, or a combo chip), which AMD has designed for &amp;''embedded systems,&amp;'' or the gadgets that aren&amp;'t considered phones or PCs. Embedded systems typically serve one or two functions and are generally not programmable for other tasks.AMD has offered chips in the embedded market for some time, such as its AMD Geode processor from 2003. But it has steadily increased the computing power of the chips it has offered in the space, culminating with an APU that is optimized for low-power consumption, smaller size, lower prices, and high performance.AMD is targeting the new chips at a variety of vertical markets. Those include thin-client computers for enterprises, kiosks and cash register systems, digital signs, industrial controls, rugged military systems, medical imaging, game machines, single-board computers, storage, and telecommunications/networking gear. With the G-Series, computer makers can design a PC with a 3.5-inch circuit board (pictured).The AMD Fusion family of APUs combines a microprocessor with a graphics system all on one chip. The G-Series platform has two &amp;''Bobcat&amp;'' microprocessor cores, a variety of video processors and a controller hub for display output and input-output functions. AMD has lined up a number of developer tools for support. And its customers include Microsoft&amp;'s new Surface table computers, MediaVue, Quixant, Wyse, Fujitsu, Advansus, Compulab, Congatec, Haier, Kontron, Mitec, Sintrones, Starnet, WebDT, and Hewlett-Packard.AMD says its embedded G-Series platform uses chips that are smaller than Intel&amp;'s equivalent Atom chips. That means they use less power and cost less.Previous Story: How long can Apple&amp;'s growth in enterprise stay this quietPrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: Fusion, G-SeriesCompanies: Amd, Intel          Tags: Fusion, G-SeriesCompanies: Amd, IntelDean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. Dean previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Follow him on Twitter at @deantak, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.VentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[The Brutal Decline Of Yahoo Is Now An&nbsp'Infographic]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=the-brutal-decline-of-yahoo-is-now-annbspinfographic</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=the-brutal-decline-of-yahoo-is-now-annbspinfographic</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>erneesters</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=the-brutal-decline-of-yahoo-is-now-annbspinfographic</guid>
<description><![CDATA[In light of today&amp;'s rumoreda4s20% Yahoo staff layoffs, this infographic representation of the portal&amp;'s death spiral is as painful as the comments we are inevitably going to get for posting it.And while much cruder than and not as philosophical asa4sPaul Graham&amp;'s must-read essaya4s&amp;''What Happened to Yahoo!,&amp;''a4sit does get the point across. For those of you too busy to scan through either Graham&amp;'s post pretty much sums up Yahoo&amp;'s trajectory in this one sentence,&amp;''But there are worse things than seeming irresponsible. Losing, for example.&amp;''Image: ScoresCrunchBase InformationYahoo!Information provided by CrunchBase<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Analyst says iPad 2 sold out' 70% went to new converts]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=analyst-says-ipad-2-sold-out-70-went-to-new-converts</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=analyst-says-ipad-2-sold-out-70-went-to-new-converts</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>erneesters</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=analyst-says-ipad-2-sold-out-70-went-to-new-converts</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The iPad 2 has sold out, and 70 percent of purchasers were new to the iPad, according to a survey by analyst Gene Munster and his team at Piper Jaffray.The survey isn&amp;'t definitive by any means, but it suggests that Apple is expanding its reach beyond its core fans to people who own a lot of non-Apple gear.Munster&amp;'s numbers aren&amp;'t always right, but he puts a lot of effort into getting his guesses in order. This time, his team interviewed 236 would-be buyers in lines in New York and Minneapolis. The team also called various retailers looking for product.As of Sunday night, Munster concluded that Apple sold 400,000 to 500,000 units this weekend, compared to 300,000 original iPad units sold in its first weekend last year.Most of the iPad 2 units were sold in one day, with stocks gone by Sunday. His team was unable to locate a single iPad 2 on Sunday.The good sign for Apple is that so many new buyers were purchasing the iPad 2. By comparison, only 23 percent of iPhone 4 buyers were new customers at launch.About 51 percent of iPad 2 buyers were Mac users, while 49 percent were PC users. Roughly 74 percent of the original iPad buyers were Mac users. About 47 percent of the buyers got a 3G model, which is $130 more.About 41 percent bought the 32-gigabyte iPad 2, up from 32 percent who bought the 32-gigabyte original iPad. The survey showed that 65 percent of buyers owned an iPhone, 24 percent had a Kindle (up from 13 percent of original iPad buyers) and 17 percent plan to use apps and play games, up from 9 percent for the original iPad.Previous Story: IBM takes a stab at smarter commercePrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: iPad 2, tabletsCompanies: Apple          Tags: iPad 2, tabletsCompanies: AppleDean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. Dean previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Follow him on Twitter at @deantak, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat. Have news to share Launching a startup Email: tips@venturebeat.comVentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Dear Tech Press: Let&'s Cut Through The Nonsense And Focus On Active&nbsp'Users]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=dear-tech-press-letrsquos-cut-through-the-nonsense-and-focus-on-activenbspusers</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=dear-tech-press-letrsquos-cut-through-the-nonsense-and-focus-on-activenbspusers</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>erneesters</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=dear-tech-press-letrsquos-cut-through-the-nonsense-and-focus-on-activenbspusers</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The technology press can be a strange beast sometimes. We&amp;'ll quibble over facts and quotes that were mentioned in jest or passing (oftentimes in less than 140 characters).  But, inexplicably, we&amp;'re willing to regurgitate statistics that are nebulous at best and sometimes just plain misleading a4&quot;a4susually because they sound good in a headline.  Today, I&amp;'m going to single out what&amp;'s probably the most frequently abused statistic: the cumulative user count.You see it all the time. Hell, I&amp;'ve probably written hundreds of posts that mention the total number of users a startup has without batting an eye. This often refers to the number people to ever register for a site or the number of total downloads of an app. But in reality this number doesn&amp;'t say much because it fails to take into account how many people have stopped using a service. Put another way: going by total user count, MySpace is still kicking butt.The total user count can be meaningful for a startup&amp;'s first few months of life, but the older a startup is, the more useless it becomes. A startup could have a gangbusters launch with two million signups only to morph into a ghost town over the ensuing six months. But you can bet its press release would still boast about its millions of users.This was brought back to my attention this morning when I saw the news that Evernote had passed 5 million users. I love Evernote a4&quot;a4sI use it all the time, and the fact that the service added the most recent million in less than three months indicates that it&amp;'s doing well. But it also reminded me of a talk that Evernote CEO Phil Libin gave earlier this year where he give entrepreneurs some insight on how to track their users.  Here&amp;'s what he had to say about total cumulative users:&amp;''That&amp;'s, by the way, the only chart that&amp;'s guaranteed by the way it&amp;'s put together to always be up and to the right&amp;8230' You should always have one of these charts in your pitch deck.&amp;''Again, I&amp;'m not saying Evernote is doing anything sinister here a4&quot;a4sreleasing this stat is par for the course in the industry, and Evernote actually tends to release data that other companies keep private, like how many of its users are paying customers. What I am saying is that technology journalists need to be more critical and careful when it comes to stats like these.Further exacerbating the problem is how loosely journalists will throw these terms around. Words like &amp;8216'Members&amp;' and &amp;8216'Users&amp;' are often used interchangeably, when they can mean totally different things.  Case in point: last month Mashable published an article proclaiming that Foodspotting had both 400,000 users and 400,000 members (Foodspotting then tweeted that it had 400,000 members). This didn&amp;'t seem to add up, because when I signed up for the service after the post was published my user ID was around 80,000. Update: Foodspotting says that its tweet came from a community manager who was just repeating what they&amp;'d read in the article.I reached out to Foodspotting CEO Alexa Andrzejewski, who said that they had been very clear with Mashable that they&amp;'d had 400,000 app downloads, and that you don&amp;'t need to become a registered member to explore Foodspotting content, which is obviously an important distinction. Again, I don&amp;'t mean to insinuate that Foodspotting has purposely done anything misleading a4&quot;a4sit sounds like a reporter simply didn&amp;'t pay attention to how the startup was defining these terms.The answer to this is pretty simple: tech reporters need to push startups to talk about how many active users they have, where the meaning of active isn&amp;'t up for debate (I think Facebook&amp;'s definition is a good one: an active user is one who&amp;'s logged in withina4sthe last thirty days). Many startups won&amp;'t want to release this stat, which is absolutely their prerogative.  But treating the cumulative user count as if it&amp;'s a meaningful measure of popularity or engagement just doesn&amp;'t cut it for a startup when it&amp;'s no longer in its infancy.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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