Monday: November 14, 2011
Everything you never knew about Google's top secret lab where they pursue future ideas.According to the article, this magical place (dubbed 'Google X') is where Google may or may not be working on the following futuristic concepts: 1) an internet fridge that orders food when it's low, 2) driver-less cars, 3) space elevators, 4) personal assistant robots for your home, 5) networked coffee pots and gardening tools and finally 6) training monkeys to fly airplanes for special covert operations.
Tuesday: December 18, 2012
Why Google's GMail outage may be a sign of things to come.The answer is that most of the coders behind today’s popular websites and services are deploying their code when it’s ready—not at some pre-determined point when downtime may not be noticed. It’s called continuous code deployment, or some variation on that theme, and everyone from Facebook and Netflix to smaller services do it. While it may occasionally cause a few blips, those blips should be shorter and less catastrophic.
Thursday: December 13, 2012
Google releases standalone maps application for iPhone.The long awaited Google Maps application is finally here and it actually looks and functions very well. There have been numerous reports that this app beats out it's Android counterpart in terms of design and overall look and feel. All of the characteristics you expected from a proper maps application are here - turn by turn directions, vector maps, rotational maps and general location information. Some amazing work here from Google.
Wednesday: December 12, 2012
Want to know what the world searched for in 2012? There's a Google Zeitgeist for that.They even prepared a little video with inspirational music to go along with it. How very Google of them.
Monday: December 10, 2012
Google Fiber not coming to your neighborhood any time soon.Turns out that Google would need about $140 billion to roll out their fiber network to the entire continental United States. At present time, they only have about $45 billion in the bank and that doesn't begin to include other associative costs. Long story short, if you really want to try out Google Fiber you should think about moving to Kansas.
Sunday: December 9, 2012
Telltale's episodic adapation of The Walking Dead wins Game of the Year award.If you haven't played any games from Telltale now would be a good time to start. I've been a big fan of Telltale early on as they managed to take some classic yet seemingly abandoned LucasArts franchises (Sam and Max, Monkey Island) and restore them with new storylines and fun adventures. That being said, I've heard wonderful things about their latest offering with Kirkman's series and how it takes adventure gaming to an entirely different level. Truth be told, I haven't tried out The Walking Dead yet but I plan to in the near future. Congratulations to the entire Telltale Games team!
Monday: November 14, 2011
Five future technologies for passenger air travel presented by National Geographic.What does the future hold for passenger air travel? National Geographic takes a look at some future technologies being developed right now. You just might be commuting at twice the speed of sound in a dart-like airplane and then arriving at the airport of the future. Do all airplanes of the future all have free in-flight wi-fi? That would be totally cool.
Wednesday: November 9, 2011
Bret Victor's not-so-brief rant on the future of interaction design.If you haven't seen Microsoft's video entailing what they think the future of technology holds, you should watch it (readily available on source URL as an embedded clip). So watch that video and then read Victor's thoughts on the matter. That being said, I do have a minor point of contention. I did get some hands-on time with a Kinect-enabled Xbox 360 this past weekend and it was a fun, dare I say, semi-magical experience. I highly reccomend Double Fine's Once Upon a Monster (even the demo is fun).
Monday: August 15, 2011
Mozilla to do away with version numbers in Firefox with new non-numbered version update.Google has taught us all that people are too busy to remember version numbers these days. It's better just to keep updating software and have to worry about pesky version number conventions. Mozilla thinks this is a good idea and has decided to adopt this release schedule for future non-version-numbered releases of Firefox. Good for them.
Wednesday: August 3, 2011
New study suggests that Earth may have originally had two moons.A tiny second moon may once have orbited Earth before catastrophically slamming into the other one, a titanic clash that could explain why the two sides of the surviving lunar satellite are so different from each other, a new study suggests. The second moon around Earth would have been about 750 miles (1,200 kilometers) wide and could have formed from the same collision between the planet and a Mars-sized object that scientists suspect helped create the moon we see in the sky today, astronomers said.
Monday: August 1, 2011
Tickets for Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary Symphony Concert on sale today.For those of you who happen to be a fan of all things Zelda while at the same time being fans of all things orchestral this October will be a good month for you. You'll get to hear some of your favorite Zelda themes performed by a 70-piece orchestra along with a choir at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles. For those who can't make it out to Los Angeles, fear not - Nintendo is planning a full concert tour in 2012.