Google has begun testing its augmented reality glasses in public, calling it ProjectGlass.
Much to the disappointment of Engadget, the glasses are actually very subtle by design and won’t make the user stand out too much in a crowd by looking like Robocop.
“The software giant let it be known that, while it hasn’t quite got a sale date on the wearables, it’s ready to test ProjectGlass amongst the non-augmented public,” according to the post. “The company is also looking for feedback on the project, writing in a post, ‘we want to start a conversation and learn from your valuable input.'”
“The prototype version Google showed off on Wednesday looked like a very polished and well-designed pair of wrap-around glasses with a clear display that sits above the eye,” adds The New York Times in a related article. “The glasses can stream information to the lenses and allow the wearer to send and receive messages through voice commands. There is also a built-in camera to record video and take pictures.”
Google has provided a video detailing the project’s vision by showcasing how the glasses will work in daily life.
Google’s YouTube will now convert all 1080p video to 3D and allow playback to those wearing 3D glasses.
YouTube launched the 3D beta feature in September 2011. The update also eliminated the 15-minute time limit set earlier to lessen the upload of pirated movies.
“Google processes the original 2D video and creates a ‘depth map,’ looking for a combination of video characteristics such as color, spatial layout, and motion that it has ‘learned’ from other, dedicated 3D videos uploaded to the site,” reports PCMag. “The creation of the depth map adds the second image that’s needed for the 3D video.”
According to the YouTube blog: “With this broader knowledge of 3D conversion, we then apply cloud computing scalability to make conversion possible across even more videos on YouTube. Breaking up a video into tiny chunks of data and processing them in parallel on Google’s cloud infrastructure lets us process these videos, while still producing the quality you expect.”
Take a look at the linked video to see the 3D effect. You’ll need to click on the gear icon and then the 3D selection.
Stuart Green, Rutgers Law School professor and author of the upcoming “13 Ways to Steal a Bicycle: Theft Law in the Information Age,” addresses emerging trends regarding copyright infringement and intellectual property in a recent New York Times op-ed.
In doing so, Green provides a compelling examination of the concept (and evolution) of “theft” in the digital age.
“For starters, we should stop trying to shoehorn the 21st-century problem of illegal downloading into a moral and legal regime that was developed with a pre- or mid-20th-century economy in mind,” writes Green. “Second, we should recognize that the criminal law is least effective — and least legitimate — when it is at odds with widely held moral intuitions.”
“But framing illegal downloading as a form of stealing doesn’t, and probably never will, work,” he adds. “We would do better to consider a range of legal concepts that fit the problem more appropriately: concepts like unauthorized use, trespass, conversion and misappropriation.”
“Treating different forms of property deprivation as different crimes may seem untidy, but that is the nature of criminal law,” suggests Green.
A recent TVGuide.com survey found that TV viewers believe they can influence business decisions by using social media.
According to Lost Remote, the survey determined that 76 percent of TV viewers indicate their “main motivation for engaging with social media is to prevent their favorite TV shows from being canceled.” That number is up from 66 percent a year ago.
Viewers also use social media to let their friends know what they’re watching. The survey specifies that 95 percent engage in social media after the show concludes, 40 percent participate while the show is airing and 53 percent engage beforehand.
It’s also worth noting that 69 percent use social sites to see other viewers’ opinions, whereas only a third actually post something themselves.
“The most entertaining question from the survey asked the simple question, ‘What is social TV?’ which is even difficult for TV execs to define,” comments Lost Remote. “But 61 percent had an answer: ‘Another stupid marketing term for how people have always watched TV’ said one, ‘liberal biased media crap’ responded another. But among them, there were some great definitions, such as ‘Being hooked into communities online while watching TV’ and ‘a connected atmosphere of television.'”
Tablets running Facebook and Twitter are emerging as the long-sought second screen that could steer the success of social TV.
According to survey results from Informa, more than 41 percent of executives said tablets are the most important platform for watching TV interactively. Additionally, more than 21 percent suggest that social networks can help sell paid content.
“The big content winners are likely to be entertainment, cited by almost 40 percent of executives as representing the greatest opportunity for increasing viewer engagement,” reports MediaPost.
“Sports and news and weather were seen as the biggest opportunity by 27.5 percent and 14.8 percent of respondents, respectively,” explains the article. “But movies (9 percent) generally were not regarded as a strong content type around which to generate social engagement.”
Informa recommends that instead of relying on their own apps to develop social TV strategies, television stakeholders should create a portfolio of external partners such as Facebook, to maintain relevance in terms of viewers’ needs. “Informa also recommends that programmers build viable social TV ad models that work off of the main TV display,” suggests MediaPost. “The second screen is where advertisers can more precisely target and segment the TV audience.”
Leaked screenshots suggest that Nokia’s new Lumia phone with Windows Phone 7 may feature a TV app.
The app may provide access to content from local network archives, Wi-Fi streaming of shows, the ability to download programs for offline viewing, or the possible streaming of live TV.
Initial rumors indicate the app will first launch with three local stations in Finland.
“Nokia has already made it clear that it’s aiming for Windows Phone customization both on the hardware and software side, so there’s every reason to think this is real,” reports The Verge. “Whether a self-branded TV app would move the sales needle, though, remains to be seen.”
Spotify announced it has extended its unlimited listening period for early adopters from the original six months to an indefinite amount of time.
According to the Spotify blog: “Well, it’s now been 9 months since we launched in the U.S. Time sure flies when you’re having fun! To celebrate, here’s some great news… We’ve been so overwhelmed by the U.S. response to Spotify that we’ve extended the honeymoon for unlimited free listening.”
“After Spotify integrated Facebook’s frictionless sharing tool with the music service, new people are discovering Spotify as music is being shared within the Facebook news feed and ticker,” reports Digital Trends.
The company suggests Facebook has been instrumental in the service’s growth. “Users who are exposing their listening on Facebook are three times as likely to become paid subscribers,” says Spotify chief content officer Ken Parks.
“Spotify is still offering 30 days of free Spotify Premium service to users,” indicates the post. “The cost of the service is $9.99 a month after the free-trial offer and it allows users to listen to music on mobile devices, access music encoded at a higher quality bitrate and download music for listening when offline.”
LG plans to launch a flexible e-paper display later this month in Europe.
“The 6-inch EPD (e-paper display) is the same size as the screen on the Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader and many other e-book readers,” reports CNET. “It’s about a third thinner though, and because it’s made of plastic rather than glass, is only half the weight.”
Although it cannot be folded or rolled up, the display can reportedly bend up to 40 degrees. “That should make it more tactile for reading, as well as more durable when slung into a bag or pocket,” adds the article.
Maximum resolution of the display is 1,024 x 768 pixels. LG has yet to announce any ebook readers using the display, or whether the company plans to license the technology to others or develop its own reader.
“Earlier this week, Amazon announced the Kindle Touch would finally be coming to the UK at the end of April. It’s a touchscreen version that has so far been unavailable on these shores, and lets you flick through pages like leafing through a book,” according to CNET. “The prospect of a bendable Kindle sounds great to me. Much as I like my Sony Reader, it is a bit like reading off a piece of slate. Though LG’s screen could be used in advertising as well, just like 3D TVs are.”
According to South Korean business publication Maeil, LG will launch its first 55-inch OLED TV in May for about $8,000. The unit was originally slated for availability during the second half of 2012.
New OLED TVs from LG and Samsung drew a great deal of attention at CES in January.
If Maeil is correct, LG’s launch will beat competitor Samsung to market while capitalizing on the timing of the upcoming summer Olympic games.
“What TV manufacturers desperately need right now is a luxury product with some big-time margin,” suggests Digital Trends. “The price erosion that has taken place with TVs over the past few years has brought the public to expect bargain prices, even on top-tier plasma and edge-lit LED displays. In order to justify charging big-time bucks again, the performance margin needs to grow proportionately. OLED provides that opportunity.”
Smartphones have had a significant impact on Internet radio usage, which has increased more than 30 percent in the past year.
“The weekly usage of Internet radio (which includes both the online streams of terrestrial broadcasters and streams from pure-play streamers such as Pandora) has increased from 22 percent of Americans 12+ in 2011 to 29 percent in 2012,” Tom Webster of Edison Research wrote on his blog.
“This is a number that we are accustomed to seeing grow bit by bit each year, but this is the largest year-over-year increase we’ve seen since we began tracking this stat in 1998,” he added.
More specifics will be available when Edison and Arbitron release the 20th edition of “The Infinite Dial: Navigating Digital Platforms” in April.
“Smartphones have changed the game here from music as active entertainment choice to music as the quite literal soundtrack to your life,” says Webster.
“The market for night classes and online instruction in programming and Web construction, as well as for iPhone apps that teach, is booming,” reports The New York Times. “Those jumping on board say they are preparing for a future in which the Internet is the foundation for entertainment, education and nearly everything else.”
The article cites a number of interesting new start-ups such as Udacity, Treehouse and General Assembly (among others), that are hoping to meet this growing need.
“But at the center of the recent frenzy in this field is Codecademy, a start-up based in New York that walks site visitors through interactive lessons in various computing and Web languages, like JavaScript, and shows them how to write simple commands,” explains the article.
More than a million people have registered for Codecademy since it was first introduced last summer, and it got a big boost when Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced his New Year’s resolution to use the service to learn code. The free site, which plans to earn revenue by connecting new programmers with recruiters and start-ups, has raised close to $3 million in financing.
“Inasmuch as you need to know how to read English, you need to have some understanding of the code that builds the Web,” said Sarah Henry, an investment manager from Pennsylvania who recently took several classes through New York-based Girl Develop It. “It is fundamental to the way the world is organized and the way people think about things these days.”
According to the new Mobile Games Trend Report from research firm Newzoo, “the number of Americans who play video games on their smartphone, tablet, or iPod Touch has surpassed 100 million,” reports VentureBeat.
The report indicates that 69 percent play games on their smartphones, 21 percent play on tablets, and 18 percent opt for the iPod Touch.
“The firm also estimates that 9 percent of total game spending last year was on mobile titles and says the free-to-play (F2P) business model is increasingly converting players into continuous payers,” explains the article. “F2P games already account for 90 percent of mobile game spending in the U.S., Newzoo says.”
VentureBeat suggests there is a potentially significant business opportunity in this space: “Although smartphones and tablets are often seen as ‘casual’ platforms, Newzoo says there is major opportunity for ‘core’ games to be offered as full titles or game extensions, as 62 percent of core gamers in the U.S. also play on mobile devices. Developers that can combine core genres with the games-as-a-service business model on mobile platforms will be the ones that reap the most benefit from what Newzoo is dubbing ‘mid-core’ games.”
A study from market research firm Distimo notes that News Corp.’s The Daily, The New York Times and The New Yorker magazine are currently the top titles on Apple’s Newsstand app.
According to the report, which tracked Apple’s App Store for iPad during February, the leading 100 publications account for more than $70,000 per day in the U.S.
“Apple launched Newsstand as part of iOS 5 in October, providing a way for users to view newspapers and magazines they’ve purchased or subscribed to,” reports CNET. “The app also doubles as its own storefront, where users can browse and purchase content, similar to Apple’s App Store, iBooks, and iTunes apps.”
Distimo also says that China has surpassed the U.S. in free app downloads, but the U.S. is the global leader in iPad app spending.
Dr. Raymond Soneira, president of DisplayMate Technologies, has published the results of an extensive shoot-out between the iPhone 4, iPad 2 and new iPad with a focus on display technology.
The article specifically provides “a combination of objective praise and critical analysis of the Retina Display on the new iPad.”
Soneira explains some interesting specs regarding the Retina Display, questions what level of resolution is really necessary for a consumer device, draws comparisons to other tablets such as the Nook and Kindle Fire, offers suggestions for improvement and addresses features including power consumption, camera capability, color saturation and accuracy, and more.
In his conclusion, Soneira writes: “…the new iPad’s picture quality, color accuracy, and gray scale are not only much better than any other Tablet or Smartphone, it’s also much better than most HDTVs, laptops, and monitors. In fact with some minor calibration tweaks the new iPad would qualify as a studio reference monitor. So we have also awarded the new iPad the Best Mobile Picture Quality Award, which was previously held by the original Motorola Droid.”
Hillcrest Labs says it has adapted its FreeSpace system to bring gesture recognition technology to Android and Windows 8 devices.
The company explains that the introduction of gyroscopes, accelerometers and other sensors has made phones viable candidates for Kinect-style movement recognition.
The FreeSpace motion engine is currently used in Roku set-top boxes and Smart TVs. Hillcrest Labs hopes to use the technology in phones and tablets by early next year.
According to SVP Chad Lucien, gesture recognition has wide potential. “In addition to being used in such obvious areas as gaming and augmented reality, sensors can detect when a phone is in a car, and can change the interface and aid indoor navigation by detecting where a phone has headed once it leaves GPS range,” he says.
