Category Archives: Gadgets

Smartphones Changed Literally Everything

Posted on by David Pierce | NO COMMENTS

Brian Chen, a writer at Wired, has a book out called “Always On.” He went on the previously-mentioned best radio show/podcast on Earth (NPR’s Fresh Air) to talk about the book, which chronicles how smartphones changed the world. One of the subjects discussed was education:

“Instead of lecturing students and saying ‘Hey, open your textbook and go to page 96,’ the teacher is acting as a guide and saying ‘OK, so here’s the topic we’re going to discuss today. Take out your iPhone and go search on the web or search Wikipedia and let’s have a conversation about where we want to take this discussion,” says Chen.

He explains that students at Abilene are being taught the importance of discerning good data from bad data — and not just to blindly accept the information that would have been presented in a textbook.

Five Reasons to Switch to an iPhone

Posted on by David Pierce | 3 Comments

Taylor Martin, at PhoneDog, switched from an Android-based HTC Thunderbolt to an iPhone 4, and gives five reasons why. Here’s “stability”:

One area the ThunderBolt has always struggled has been with software stability, and that could easily be said about most other Android devices, especially HTC-made phones. Sense UI is bug-ridden and known to be the culprit for lag and battery drains. The likes of custom ROMs proved to be no better as development for the ‘Bolt has hit quite a few road blocks over the months.

For a PCMag story, I’ve been using an iPhone as my primary phone for a week, and though there are a million things I don’t like about the iPhone this is the one I can’t disagree with. The iPhone just, simply, works better than any Android phone. When you tap something, something always happens. When you press a button, it always registers. There’s little lag, little crashing (and the crashes that do happen are always single-app, not the Earth-shattering everything-crashes that Android is prone to), and it works as it’s supposed to. That’s a big deal.

(Via Daring Fireball)

You And Your Gadgets As Art

Posted on by David Pierce | NO COMMENTS

Two cool artsy/techie things today. First, via Kottke, a series of photos called Texters, in which Joe Holmes captures people texting and the world around them.

Second, via Gizmodo, is a series of photos of people using public computers, captured by the computers thanks to software installed by artist Kyle McDonald. I love the video he made (below), and the photos.

Who Uses a Landline Anymore?

Posted on by David Pierce | 6 Comments

Apparently not many people, according to the FCC. Gizmodo reports:

For adults aged 25-29, more than half (51.3 percent) lived in households with wireless-only telephones, which is the first time that wireless-only households have exceeded landline households in any of the age ranges examined. For adults aged 18-24 years or 30-34 years, approximately 40 percent lived in households with wireless-only telephones.

Frankly, I’m surprised it’s only 51.3 percent. None of my friends have home phones, or even really considered getting one; it’s just another thing the cable company tries to sell you when you sign up for Internet. I certainly understand that some people live in places without cell service, or don’t want to lose the number they’ve held on to, but both of those problems are evaporating so fast that I can’t imagine they still affect 48.7 percent of adults 25-29. That age group is full of people who have, at some point in the last few years, had to make the decision about whether or not to get a landline, and I bet most of them don’t use it, and most of the 18-24 age group won’t even think about getting it.

Are We Okay With Cars Becoming Computers?

Posted on by David Pierce | 1 Comment

Mat Honan’s car runs better than ever, and he’s not a fan of the reason why:

J.D. Power found that overall auto quality dropped in 2011, especially among American-made vehicles, largely due to the onboard electronics like in-dash touchscreen navigation systems that can befuddle and flummox users. Or the computerized transmission systems that are designed to give better fuel economy, but feel like hesitating ninnies to consumers. Back to my own Honda Civid Hybrid, it has never run as well after its most recent software update.

Think of that. As a part of routine maintenance now, I have to update my vehicle’s firmware.

It’s unbelievable how technologically advanced cars are now, from their ever-more-finely-tuned engines to the in-dash entertainment and phone integrations we’ve come to expect from new cars. But that means a host of new problems for our cars, an excess of complexity, and endless possibilities for good and bad consequences. (Mat mentions hackers that have found a way to crash cars’ computers while the car is in motion. Not good.) Should our cars be like our computers? I’m not so sure.

The Technology Behind the Cars of the Future

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Wired’s Autopia blog lists ten technologies, some currently available to everyone and some only to the ridiculously wealthy, that are going to power the cars of the future. Like Active Noise Cancellation, for instance:

Traditionally, there have been two ways to combat road and wind noise. The first was to swaddle the interior with insulation, muffling outside noises. Trouble is, that adds a lot of weight, and weight is the enemy of fuel economy. The second method, which is no less effective, was to simply crank up the radio.

Now there’s a third way, which riffs on the crank-it-up method. A growing number of automobiles use active noise cancellation, much like you find in the headphones everyone wore on your last flight.

The technology uses the car’s audio system to cancel out unwanted sound waves. A microphone “listens” for certain sounds or frequencies. A computer recreates that sound using an anti-phase wave. When the offending sound wave meets its anti-phase counterpart, they cancel each other out, allowing you to revel in the glorious sound of … anything but the humming of tires, the rumbling of the road or the droning of the engine.

Lytro: The New New Thing in Photography?

Posted on by David Pierce | NO COMMENTS

I’ve had a number of discussions with people over the last few weeks that boiled down to whether or not camera technology can get any better. It seems like a picture is a picture, and we can only make it so sharp and so clear before the marginal increase stops being relevant.

But Lytro? Lytro might change everything. Lytro will release, this year, the first light field camera for consumers. What light field does that’s so special is not care about focus. Shoot now, and then later you can choose where the focus should be. Don’t like your choice? Pick something else to focus on. The possibilities are amazing, as are the sample images. The video below explains it a little more – if this works as advertised, it’s going to be a serious upgrade in digital photography.

What Flying Will be Like in 2050

Posted on by David Pierce | 6 Comments

The Guardian looks at an Airbus concept of a plane in 2050, which includes things like a golf course, vitamin-enriched air, and panoramic views for every single passenger:

The concept cabin for travellers in 2050 would be a bionic structure that mimics the efficiency of bird bone.

It would provide strength where needed, and also allows for an “intelligent” cabin wall membrane which controls air temperature and can become transparent to give passengers open, panoramic views.

The cabin would have seats that fit passengers’ body shapes and travellers might be able to read bedtime stories to their children back home, Airbus said.

Hit the Guardian’s slideshow for more photos. It looks like flying’s not going to suck in 39 years.

The Real Reason You Turn Off Your Phone on the Plane, Ctd.

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Jordan Crook, over at CrunchGear, digs into the “why do you turn off your phone on the plane?” story, and finds some interesting, and more concrete, evidence:

In one instance, with two laptops being used nearby, the plane’s clock spun backwards and GPS readings began going off. In another example, altitude details were jumbled until the pilot asked passengers to turn off their gizmos. A Boeing advisor, Dave Carson, believes that the signals radiating from portable electronics can mess with sensors hidden in the passenger areas of a plane, and that those signals are far stronger than what Boeing considers acceptable during a flight.

Interestingly enough, the most dangerous device was the iPad, followed closely by the iPhone and BlackBerry smartphones. New planes with the proper sheathing shouldn’t experience many problems, but Carson claims that phones are a genuine safety hazard on older model air crafts. Whether these incidents were caused by electronics or not, 75 problems over six years isn’t exactly a staggering stat.