More on the Apple iPhone, or whatever it'll be called

"Jupiter Research estimates the number of wireless phones that support music will surge to more than 70 million by 2010, surpassing the number of portable MP3 players."

More here.

So that'll be a phone, iPod music player (with seamless PC/MAC integration), car radio (just plug and play), home entertainment centre (again, just plug and play) and - eventually - fully formed PDA, all in one package.

And if Apple and Motorola get this right, they should have the lion's share of this 70 million plus market.

I guess there was a point to all that Newton stuff in the 90s after all.

[+] Tags: George Hopkin | Media | Internet | Science | Pop culture

Is Apple about to announce the iPod phone?

"Speculation on what Apple Computer Inc. will do next with its popular iPod rose to a fevered pitch Monday after the firm sent out invitations to a special event next week at San Francisco's Moscone West Convention Center.

The Cupertino firm sent e-mails to reporters and analysts on Monday morning. The messages included a photo of a jeans pocket with the message: "1, 000 songs in your pocket changed everything. Here we go again."

The event is scheduled for Sept. 7 at 10 a.m."

More here.

[+] Tags: George Hopkin | Media | Internet | Science | Pop culture

Judy Garland's Ruby Slippers Stolen From Museum

GRAND RAPIDS, MINN. (August 29, 2005) - The most recognizable pair of shoes in movie history – the sequined ruby slippers Dorothy wore in “The Wizard of Oz” – was reported stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota on Sunday, August 28. The slippers are one of four remaining pair of the ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in the filming of the 1939 classic movie. The Judy Garland Museum is the home of the world’s largest collection of Judy Garland memorabilia on exhibit to the public.

More here.

[+] Tags: George Hopkin | Media | Internet | Odd | Pop Culture

Crashing into the snow, it came from Outer Space

Doesn't this read like the opening scenes of Alien Vs. Predator? Or The Thing?

"On Sept. 3, 2004, the space-based infrared sensors of the U.S. Department of Defense detected an asteroid a little less than 10 meters across, at an altitude of 75 kilometers, descending off the coast of Antarctica. U.S. Department of Energy visible-light sensors built by Sandia National Laboratories, a National Nuclear Security Administration lab, also detected the intruder when it became a fireball at approximately 56 kilometers above Earth. Five infrasound stations, built to detect nuclear explosions anywhere in the world, registered acoustic waves from the speeding asteroid that were analyzed by LANL researcher Doug ReVelle. NASA's multispectral polar orbiting sensor then picked up the debris cloud formed by the disintegrating space rock."

But it's not - more here.

It didn't make much of a Deep Impact, but "some 7.5 hours after the initial observation, a cloud of anomalous material was detected in the upper stratosphere over Davis Station in Antarctica by ground-based lidar. "We noticed something unusual in the data," says Andrew Klekociuk, a research scientist at the Australian Antarctic division. "We'd never seen anything like this before - [a cloud that] sits vertically and things blow through it. It had a wispy nature, with thin layers separated by a few kilometers. Clouds are more consistent and last longer. This one blew through in about an hour."

More here.

Oh, and on the subject of asteroids, "astronomers are debating what to do about Earth's close encounter with an asteroid in 2029 and again in 2036 — passages that might be too close for comfort."

More here.

[+] Tags: George Hopkin | Odd | Science

All hail the mighty Flying Spaghetti Monster

"Move over, Darwin. Stand aside, Intelligent Design. The idea that a Flying Spaghetti Monster created the world is demanding equal time in Kansas biology classrooms. In his corner are three moderate state school board members and a prominent Topeka attorney. They say this concept makes about as much sense as proposed science standards, favored by the board's religious conservative majority, that encourage schools to criticize evolution while they teach it."

More here.

Fantastic satire. And this site "has had 19 million visits, including 4 million in two days last week".

[+] Tags: George Hopkin | Media | Internet | Odd | Science

BBC plans to broadcast One and Two on the web

"The BBC's TV channels could be made available on the internet, one of the corporation's top executives has said. A simulcast of BBC One or BBC Two, letting UK viewers see programmes on the web at the same time as they go out on TV, is being planned. Proposals to make clips available on mobile phones are also being speeded up, director of TV Jana Bennett said."

Only for UK residents, however.

Also: "The BBC received a "wake-up call" about the demand for new technology in March when the first episode of the new Doctor Who was leaked on to the internet, she said.

More here.

[+] Tags: George Hopkin | Media | Internet

One in two journalists use blogs to source news

"... the Euro RSCG Magnet study shows that more than half (51%) of journalists use Weblogs regularly—with 28% relying on them for day-to-day reporting."

More here.

And to reach those journalists, click here.

[+] Tags: George Hopkin | Media | Internet

Podcasting attracts venture capital

"Last week venture capitalists Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia Capital put $8.85 million into Podshow, the portal led by podcasting co-creator Adam Curry, while podcasting startup Odeo received an undisclosed sum from investors. Odeo is the latest project involving Evan Williams, who helped create the Blogger.com blogging system that's now part of the Google empire."

More here.

[+] Tags: George Hopkin | Media | Internet

VHS vs. Betamax all over again

"Japanese electronics giants Sony and Toshiba have abandoned their efforts to develop a single format for the next generation of DVDs, pitting the two rivals against each other in the battle for dominance of the multi-billion dollar market."

More here.

[+] Tags: George Hopkin | Media

Google's IM and communications ambitions?

"Google is set to introduce its own instant-messaging system, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday. Such a move would mark an expansion by the Web search leader into text and also voice communications."

More here.

[+] Tags: George Hopkin | Media | Internet

Looking at the differences between East and West

"Western and Eastern people look at the world in different ways, University of Michigan scientists have claimed. Researchers compared the way 26 Chinese and 25 US students viewed photographs of animals or inanimate objects set against complex backgrounds. Westerners' eyes tended to focus on the main subject while the eyes of their Eastern counterparts kept flicking to background details, they said. Its findings appear consistent with previous research which has suggested Eastern people think in a more holistic way than Westerners, instinctively paying greater heed to context. In contrast Westerners were thought to be more focused and analytical."

More here.

[+] Tags: George Hopkin | Odd | Science

War!

Google's new desktop search feature Sidebar could very well be seen as a declaration of war.

"Google today launches a desktop product that latches on to Microsoft's Windows software and may signal an ultimate intention to usurp the world's most popular operating platform."

More here.

Google's rustling up an extra $4 billion via a share offering and even named Microsoft and Yahoo! as it's main rivals in the associated regulatory paperwork.

Looks like Google is on a collision course with the two tech giants.

[+] Tags: George Hopkin | Media | Internet

Breaking the light barrier

"A team of European researchers has demonstrated for the first time that it is possible to control the speed of light. The scientists, from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)...were able not only to slow light down by a factor of three from its usual speed of 300 million metres per second in a vacuum, but they have also accomplished the considerable feat of speeding it up – effectively making light go faster than the speed of light.

More here.

[+] Tags: George Hopkin | Science

More podcasting stuff

"Melodeo, which makes peer-to-peer software that allows mobile users to listen to music on their cell phones, announced on Friday that it now offers software for podcasting on cell phones. The new software, called Mobilcast, will allow people to find and download podcasts on mobile phones."

More here.

Podcasts on phones. Cut-and-paste radio is just around the corner. Except it won't be radio, but everybody will still call it that. Once Joe User is offered a take-it-anywhere solution this is surely going to hit traditional radio broadcasters, particularly those that do not already stream their broadcast over the net.

On the hardware front, Sony's getting in on the action with this rather nice looking W800i -Walkman, cellphone and digital camera all-in-one.

And Apple already has a strong relationship with Motorola, so expect an iPod phone any time now.

Going up?

"Scientists have created the ultimate ribbon. A thousand times thinner than a human hair and a few centimetres wide, the carbon sheet is stronger than steel for its weight, and could open the door to everything from artificial muscles to a space elevator capable of sending astronauts and tourists into orbit."

More here.

Sounds like science fiction nonsense? The space elevator entered into popular culture in Arthur C. Clarke's Fountains of Paradise.

But Clarke has a bit of track record for getting these things right. In 1945, he was the first to describe the principles of satellite communications with satellites in geostationary orbits.

And you can bet there were plenty of people at the time who tought that that was sci-fi rubbish as well.

Video game kids are Doomed

"Violent video games can make children think and behave more aggressively in ways that resemble the effects of televised violence, according to a study released Thursday by the American Psychological Association. As a result the Washington, D.C., group called on the gaming industry to cut back on the violence in titles sold to kids."

More here.

Hunter S Thompson's parting shot

"Friends and admirers of the gonzo journalist Hunter S Thompson have been gathering in Aspen, Colorado for his final send-off - in a cannon shot. The writer's ashes are to be fired from a cannon on his Owl Farm home, exactly six months after he shot himself. Johnny Depp, who played Thompson in the film of his book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, paid for the cannon."

More here.

Camels in the US (no, not the cigarettes)

And for the half a dozen or so Americans who do subscribe to the theory of evolution: "...lions, cheetahs, elephants and camels could soon roam parts of North America, Nature magazine reports. The plan, which is called Pleistocene re-wilding, is intended to be a proactive approach to conservation. The initiative would help endangered African animals while creating jobs, the Cornell University scientists say."

More here.

45 per cent of Americans subscribe to the Book of Genesis theory

"A recent Gallup poll showed that 45 per cent of Americans subscribe to the Book of Genesis theory of our origins. Only about one-third are ready to accept the evolutionary propositions of Darwin."

More here.

More camera phone stuff

UK road safety bods are making use of mobile phone camcorder footage in their latest ad campaign.

"The commercial is shot entirely on a mobile video phone and shows a group of real friends having a good time walking along a suburban street. One of them begins to cross the road, but is distracted by his friends. He looks one way as he steps into the road, but a car comes from the other direction and knocks him down."

Video is here, but keep in mind it's about five megs worth of file.

It's pretty hard hitting - literally - but is it real or fake? They appear deliberately vague about that...

I say fake.

Vote Walken 2008

The United States needs more cowbell - and Christopher Walken is going to give it to them. Moviedom's favourite bad guy is running for presidency in 2008!

Except...he's not.

Bum.

But look out for news outlets picking it up as a real story for a day or two.

Doh! Apple's iPod blunder

"Although Apple introduced the iPod in November 2001, it did not file a provisional patent application until July 2002, and a full application was filed only in October that year."

And guess what - Microsoft got in first with some key patents!

More here.

"Taking the piss" headlines frenzy

"Physicists in Singapore have succeeded in creating the first paper battery that generates electricity from urine. This new battery will be the perfect power source for cheap, disposable healthcare test-kits for diseases such as diabetes. This research is published today in the Institute of Physics’ Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering."

More here.

Google - the other PR problem

No, not PR as in page rank, PR as in public relations. Or to be specific, public relations disaster in the making.

News.com Googled Google CEO Eric Schmidt: http://news.com.com/Google+balances+privacy%2C+reach/2100-1032_3-5787483.html

"...spending 30 minutes on the Google search engine lets one discover that Schmidt, 50, was worth an estimated $1.5 billion last year. Earlier this year, he pulled in almost $90 million from sales of Google stock and made at least another $50 million selling shares in the past two months as the stock leaped to more than $300 a share. He and his wife Wendy live in the affluent town of Atherton, Calif., where, at a $10,000-a-plate political fund-raiser five years ago, presidential candidate Al Gore and his wife Tipper danced as Elton John belted out "Bennie and the Jets." Schmidt has also roamed the desert at the Burning Man art festival in Nevada, and is an avid amateur pilot."

Very cool bit of web journalism. Unfortunately, Google didn't think so. In fact, Google spat the dummy out, big time: http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,68486,00.html

Cannibalism: the meat of the matter is...

Scientists have used tissue engineering techniques to create honest-to-goodness edible meat in the lab.

Guardian Unlimited: Researchers have published details in a biotechnology journal describing a new technique which they hailed as the answer to the world's food shortage. Lumps of meat would be cultured in laboratory vats rather than carved from livestock reared on a farm."With a single cell, you could theoretically produce the world's annual meat supply," said Jason Matheny, an agricultural scientist at the University of Maryland. (When Meat Is Not Murder)

They're saying vegetarians who gave up eating meat because it was cruel to animals can now return to the dinner table and get stuck into some proper flesh.

"No animals died in order for you to eat this chicken nugget," goes the argument. "So there's no reason for you to stay off the meat now, is there?"

I'm not a vegetarian, but if you follow this logic it means we should be able to enjoy human flesh BBQs some time in the not-too-distant future. No person will have been killed to create the man burgers, so doesn't that remove any kind of moral problem?

You could even donate the cells yourself. And if you're going to go that far, don't be selfish - give the scientists permission to use your cells for mass production and spread yourself around a bit!

Another podcast observation

The new directory in Apple's iTunes lists thousands of podcasts for Mac and PC users to subscribe to, and every one of them has the word 'FREE' next to its 'subscribe' button.

Good job too - most of them suck!

But content is king, so how long before someone has a podcast so good that instead of 'FREE' next to its subscribe info you find '$1.00'. A dollar? To listen to a radio show? Hell no!

But it's not a radio show, is it? It's either entertainment or information, it just happens to use audio to deliver the content.

A dollar for an exclusive interview with Tom Cruise? Fans would buy that. A dollar for pseudo-Bloomberg stock tips? Suckers would buy that.

Maybe a dollar's too much to begin with. How about 25 cents? Your payment goes through Apple, so you're happy enough with the secure transaction. Get 5,000 subscribers paying 25 cents each to listen to your killer content - whatever it is - and you're making $1,250 per podcast.

And, of course, Apple takes a cut of every transaction. That's why they're pushing podcasts in such a big way, because just around the corner could be a serious revenue source.

They already make a fortune from legal music sales, why shouldn't they do the same with 'pick-and-mix talk radio'?

Middle East blogs and a bit about podcasting

Very kind of ITP's Campaign Middle East to mention my blog as one of 10 regional efforts highlighted in the most recent issue. It's a double-edged sword, mind, 'cos now I feel compelled to update it a bit more often.

The Campaign ME tidbit pointed out that in this March 10th post I'd predicted that mobile phone cams were going to play a key media role in the future. Four months later and we saw the appearance of Citizen Journalist following the London bombs.

BTW, if you do have a camera on your mobile phone and find yourself at the centre of a breaking news story, take a look at Scoopt.com

And here's another crystal ball exercise: podcasting is ready for the big time, and not just because the always-cool Flip Media are doing it.

No, the reason I reckon podcasting is about to go through the roof is because the latest version of Apple's iTunes incorporates automatic subscriptions and iPod syncing of podcasts. And that's for both Macs and PCs. Only a matter of time before all the MP3 players and podcast subs applications have this kind of feature incorporated. In fact, don't be surprised if the big-name web browsers have automatic podcast subscription options incorporated any time now.

Then you'd have true pick 'n' mix radio and once people concentrate on the overall solution rather than the word 'podcast', that's when it stops being a fad and starts being a killer app.

Collecting assorted RSS feeds

Great service, just got started but has a very polished look and feel:

http://www.feeddigest.com

Collect all your various RSS/XML feeds into a single digest. Very nice indeed.