Saturday, August 31, 2013

Interesting -- about the way technology moves

Google acquired WIMM Labs to bolster its own smartwatch plans


wimm feature art

"An exclusive, confidential relationship

But about a year ago, WIMM Labs suddenly went dark. The company deleted its Twitter accounts, stopped sales of the WIMM One, and published the following message on its website:
“During the summer of 2012, WIMM Labs entered into an exclusive, confidential relationship for our technology and ceased sales of the Developer Preview Kit (…) We’d like to thank all of our developers for their interest and willingness to experiment with our platform and look forward to exciting advances in the wearable market.”
Rest of the article from Gigaom

Friday, August 30, 2013

Thursday, August 8, 2013

TV Viewing Habits Change

“Place-shifted” TV consumption on the rise

New attitudes toward TV viewing have been identified in a new report from Ericsson ConsumerLab, the fourth annual report looking at consumer trends in the TV area. Among the new findings, 72 per cent of respondents say they use mobile devices to watch video at least weekly, and 42 per cent of them do so outside the home. 75 per cent of people multi-task by using mobile devices while watching TV.

Another new trend is that people are watching one piece of content across several locations and times. Ericsson ConsumerLab calls this “place-shifted viewing.” And, 41 per cent of respondents aged 65-69 watch streamed on-demand or time-shifted video more than once a week.

Anders Erlandsson, Senior Researcher at Ericsson ConsumerLab, said: “When the TV industry began talking about mobile TV, everyone assumed it was going to consist mainly of professionally-made shorter video clips.

Now, we see a really interesting twist on that story. People are indeed watching shorter video sessions, but they create the video clips themselves by pausing and resuming full-length TV shows and movies whenever it suits them.”

“We also noticed that there is a continuing re-definition of television and video among consumers. Given that 82 per cent of people use YouTube or similar services at least monthly, we had to wonder whether watching a recipe online in the kitchen counts as ‘watching TV’ or just ‘getting instructions’,” Erlandsson continued.

In fact, over half of the respondents state that their computer and Internet connection are integral parts of theirTV and video consumption habits. Those tools enable viewers to pick and mix what, how, and when they watch– similar to making a selection at a restaurant.....


Read More...

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Mercedes offering HUDS very soon!

http://www.businessinsider.com/mercedes-benz-offering-heads-up-display-2013-8

mercedes-motor authority
Motor Authority
New Mercedes-Benz models will come with an optional Head-Up Display.
The tech is currently making

Read more: http://www.motorauthority.com/news/1086066_mercedes-benz-to-add-head-up-display-as-optional-extra#ixzz35s0VcrxF


The tech is currently making inroads in the world of commercial helmets and portable devices. It's also been available on a few other models for some time now.
Mercedes-Benz, however, has finally decided to jump into the world of Head-Up Displays and will offer it as an optional extra on the upcoming 2014 S-Class and next-generation C-Class.
Initially wary of the tech, Mercedes has apparently come around to the idea of displaying pertinent information in convenient spot.
Mercedes stated that it doesn't make sense for them to only make it available on one model. To make money on this program, customers will have to have access to it on a variety of models. This means you can expect to see the HUD being rolled out on a wider range of vehicles as time goes on. 
The type of information to be displayed includes speed, navigation information, and any potential warning lights that might pop up. Benz engineers previously felt that a HUD acted as a distracting device to a driver, but it's clear they have come around.
That, or the marketing and sales folks forced the engineers to cave a bit. Seeing as these are German engineers, we don't think they caved but rather saw the popped-up lights right in front of their eyes.


Read more: http://www.motorauthority.com/news/1086066_mercedes-benz-to-add-head-up-display-as-optional-extra#ixzz35s0NKHie

The exciting Smartphone we don't have...


2013: The exciting smartphone year that never came to be


BGR.com
Smartphone Technology Analysis
Smartphone Technology Analysis
Yes, it is depressing to witness a major vendor discussing proudly how important it is to move buttons from the side of a flagship phone to the back. It is also chilling to see that same vendor highlight how awesome it is to have a 0.1-inch bezel on the sides of a display. No, it’s not. It’s not awesome to have a 0.1-inch bezel. Debuting the first color display phones, the first camera phones and the first touchscreen phones was awesome. Back in 2001 through 2007, these major break-throughs shocked and titillated Western consumers. Now, we are running on fumes. Yet just four years ago it looked as though 2013 would be a tremendously exciting year for the industry.
Back in 2009, some industry observers expected smartphones to begin featuring built-in projectors within 3-4 years. Picoprojector phones were expected to start debuting by 2012, first in $800 ultra-luxury models and then migrating to $600 phones by the end of 2013. The competition between Texas Instruments and a tiny challenger called Microvision was supposed to fuel the growth.
Microvision’s share price spiked above $40 in late 2009 on these dreams. But MVIS is now down to $2 as a series of challenges ranging from sourcing cheap blue lasers to managing power consumption to bringing module price low enough have slowed down progress. A mass market picoprojector phone would have been a genuine break-through. Phone vendors would not need to chase bigger displays so relentlessly if smartphones could project a crisp, bright picture on a nearby wall. The new hybrid product would also revolutionize the mobile app industry, which would now be busy churning out communal games. Television viewing habits would change faster if several people could share the same show on a smartphone.
But alas, all we got was the ill-fated LG eXpo.
We still likely have to wait years for the mass market commercialization of picoprojector phones. At the same time, camera and display quality have both improved so vastly that further gains are destined to be marginal. Phones are already so thin that shaving off another millimeter won’t make much difference. Power consumption could improve a lot, but this is hardly an issue that makes consumers’ hearts beat faster.
So now, we can look forward to another year of gimmicks like wood veneers and new button placements in 2014. Perhaps even a 0.07-inch bezel.

More Apple Patents related to Pico-projection

Illustration of pico projector–equipped laptop in Apple's patent, 'Display system having coherent and incoherent light sources'

Check out Patently Apple

The Register

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Friday, August 2, 2013

Microsoft Gaming Glasses




There may be more than one way to get "extended field of view."

From Neogaf.com

Recon Instruments -- something to check out

One of the reasons I'm enthusiastic about Microvision is that the demand for portable information is huge. This is another device that has surfaced to deliver portable information. I think it's pretty cool.

Even a bit player in portable information is going to do well. I think Microvision is going to be more than a bit player.

Recon Jet

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Pirate Flag over Apple?



...At the D11 conference this spring, Cook offered further hints that a wearable device might be one of Apple’s next big things, saying that wearable computing is “ripe for exploration.” He also seemed to favor a device worn on the wrist, versus the more invasive and geeky-looking Google Inc. GOOG +1.63%  entry, saying Google Glass would likely only appeal to certain markets. ...

Full Article at MarketWatch.com

Previous hints about wearable computing... ?

 

Yes, that's a Microvision Showx on the shoulder...  and the source is Microsoft..


Moto X Unveiling

Live Feeds Here:

Motorola X press render leaks

Motorola Twitter Feed

Into Mobile Dead link

Motorola YouTube Channel... nothing so far.
Motorola on YouTube