device
etc: Google was pranked recently by a group of German artists who attached a GPS device to a Google Street View car in Berlin.
Google was pranked recently by a group of German artists who attached a GPS device to a Google Street View car in Berlin.
Continue reading »iPad as Video Device? Not So Much
In the unlikely case you were somehow unaware of the big news from yesterday, Apple announced the iPad, a new device (and category) somewhere between a smartphone and a laptop that will either revolutionize the entire computing space, or will flop miserably (depending on which analyst you read). So much has been tweeted, facebooked, blogged, and written about the iPad already, I’m not sure that what I have to say will be all that new, but there are a few specific aspects of the iPad that I find very intriguing (and less commented upon). While the value of the device for casual web-surfing, gaming, and light productivity seems pretty obvious, another key aspect touted by Apple for theiPad was video. And here is where I feel the iPad is at best a step backward, and at worst a real failure. Everyone who has been able to get their hands on the iPad lauds it’s screen clarity, but from a purely video watching standpoint, it is far from ideal. 4:3 aspect ratio and limited to 720p resolution? That strikes me as very weak. A screen that size (9.7″ diagonal) might seem small for full 1080p resolution but since the use case is geared towards handheld situations, or very close watching (while on a plane for example), 1080p is actually quite appropriate in my opinion, as is a 16:9 aspect ratio. Worse, though, from a video standpoint are the format restrictions the iPad enforces. The iPad can only play back video files in .mp4, .mpv, and .mov file formats with H.264 video at Main Profile level 3.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps/48kHz. In other words, the iPad basically plays back video in the iTunes format and really nothing else. The vast bulk of Internet video files are in other formats, specifically Xvid in .avi for standard definition and H.264 High Profile 4.0 in .mkv for high definition content. True, we are talking about grey market content here, but that remains the vast majority of what users consume in terms of downloaded video files. This strategy mirrors what Apple did with the AppleTV, by severely limiting what kinds of content it could play back, essentially restricting it to iTunes video purchases and rentals, instead of the de facto standards of what people actually watch. The AppleTV/iPad strategy is the opposite of what Apple did with the iPod, it must be said, for that device could always play back the truly popular format, mp3. I believe that the main factor in the AppleTV’s failure has been the inability to play back formats outside of iTunes, and from a video standpoint, the iPad is repeating that error. Yes, there are relatively easy ways to transcode video content into an iPad playable format, but that is a massively annoying requirement, especially when it’s utterly unnecessary. I have no doubt the iPad has the graphic horsepower to decode 720p Blu-Ray rips in .mkv with either .ac3 or multi-channel .aac soundtracks natively, but Apple decided differently.
Continue reading »Lawsuit over Kindle navigation by visually impaired settled
The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) and the American Council of the Blind (ACB) have settled a lawsuit against Arizona State University (ASU) over the university’s plan to deploy the Kindle DX among students. The settlement involves no monetary damages, but ASU agreed to use devices that are more accessible to the blind if it chooses to deploy e-book readers in the coming years. If Amazon wants to be part of that deployment, it had better up its accessibility game.
Continue reading »File Hosting Sites Surpass in Traffic the Largest Social Network
Rapidshare and Megaupload together see more traffic than Facebook In a post earlier this month, P2PON reported about the major increase in popularity of one-click hosting sites such as Rapidshare.com and Megaupload.com and quoted some predictions that say BitTorrent traffic is on its way down (which, however, is not necessarily so – it’s just that P2P grows slower) while the aforementioned services are on the wave. New figures have been recently published by network management device maker Sandvine that come to prove this massive growth of hosting services. The Sandvine study shows that Rapidshare and Megaupload together account for more global IP traffic that Facebook with its huge database of 300 million users, P2P-Blog reports.
Continue reading »Time Warner Cable Exposes 65,000 Customer Routers to Remote Hacks
A vulnerability in a Time Warner cable modem and Wi-Fi router deployed to 65,000 customers would allow a hacker to remotely access the device’s administrative menu over the internet, and potentially change the settings to intercept traffic, according to a blogger who discovered the issue. Time Warner acknowledged the problem to Threat Level on Tuesday, and says it’s in the process of testing replacement firmware code from the router manufacturer, which it plans to push out to customers soon. “We were aware of the problem last week and have been working on it since,” said Time Warner spokesman Alex Dudley.
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