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Student Creates Multi-Touch Software and Table for Science Project

Brad Baldwin — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:54:59 +0000

Here’s one student that takes the “Science Fair” to the next level. Bridger Maxwell, a high school student at Utah County Academy of Sciences (UCAS) decided to create a multi-touch table for his Science Fair entry–kinda like an iPhone screen, and Microsoft Surface on a budget.

The multi-touch experience allows for object movement, rotation, growing and shrinking, and even multi-hand, multi-person use. Inspired by movies like Minority Report, Maxwell leverages Apple OS X, code developed during Google Summer of Code called Open Touch, and his own code. The table, made from plexiglass and a dissembled Acer monitor, uses infrared light emitting diodes and an IR camera to detect and transmit fingertip motions as inputs.

Maxwell also expects to experience a future where multi-touch technology becomes a standard way to interact with applications, particularly for graphic manipulation and even gaming. Maxwell submitted his code back to the community at code.google.com/p/corkboard/ and has received coverage on Ars Technica and a local NBC news story.

Maxwell also expects to experience a future where multi-touch technology becomes a standard way to interact with applications, particularly for graphic manipulation and even gaming. While Maxwell didn’t get a summer internship on the iPhone team “this” year, has received coverage on Ars Technica and the local NBC news station. Not bad for a high school student.

Tags: Apple, Brad Baldwin, Bridger Maxwell, Google, iPhone, Multi-Touch, RockyMountainVoices, Summer of Code, Surface, Utah

Apple iTunes: Make Money by Losing Money

Jason Lopez — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 07:01:57 +0000

Recently, NPD Group reported that Apple’s iTunes store moved into the number two spot in 2007 for music retail sales in the U.S. (Wal-Mart remained at number one.) Selling music has been tough — ever since the RIAA took on Napster and Grokster, less downloaded music is being paid for, not more. Where does this leave Apple? In this podcast, PodTech’s Jason Lopez and Kevin Edwards discuss why Apple has been relatively comfortable in an industry where the profit margin appears to be razor thin.

Tags: Apple, download, iTunes, music, Jason Lopez, Kevin Edwards, NPD, Wal-Mart, Napster, Grokster, RIAA

How to: Quick and Easy Video for the iPhone, Apple TV and new iPods

Kevin Edwards — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 00:03:18 +0000

Ripping DVDs, transferring video from cameras, or converting downloaded videos from various sources for Apple products can be a difficult and time consuming process. Now with a software update for the Turbo.264 hardware-based video encoder from Elgato Systems, Macintosh users now have a definitive best and fastest way to encode video for all of Apple’s latest products.

This small device simply plugs into any Intel or PowerPC based Mac with a USB port (USB 2 is highly recommended). All of the heavy processing normally done by your computer is offloaded onto the Turbo.264 encoder, resulting in much faster encoding and freeing up your Mac for other tasks.

The older and slower your Mac, the more significant the speed increase will be with this device. We found the Turbo.264 encoded video up to 20 times faster on a G4, but even on higher end Intel based Macs, encoding times were drastically improved with the Turbo.264.

The Elgato Turbo.264 goes for about $90 on Amazon.com, making it a very inexpensive way to bring new life to an old Mac as a video encoding workstation.

The new software for the Turbo.264 couldn’t be any easier to use. As with the earlier software, it allows for batch processing, but more importantly, it provides support for custom data rates and other settings. It also includes simple selections for encoding video optimized for the Apple TV, iPhone, iPods, or the recently announced iPod Touch, iPod Classic and iPod Nano (also known as the iPod Nano Fatty.

While the included software is easy to use, the Turbo.264 comes with plug-ins for QuickTime that allow it to work with any application that uses QuickTime for export. This includes Final Cut Express, Final Cut Pro, iMovie (including both HD and ‘08) and third party video apps such as Roxio Popcorn.

For an alternative to the Turbo.264 from Elgato, consider the VideoExpress from Miglia. The Miglia compares very well in terms of hardware and performance, but we find the software for the Turbo.264 to be much better due to the ability to easily customize the settings.

[9/12/2007 - update…]See also:
More Quick and Easy Methods for Video on Your iPhone, Apple TV or New iPod

Tags: Ripping DVD, Turbo.264, video encoder, Elgato Systems, Macintosh, Apple, Intel, PowerPC, USB, Apple TV, iPhone, iPod, iPod Touch, iPod Classic, iPod Nano, iPod Nano Fatty, QuickTime, Final Cut Express, Final Cut Pro, iMovie, Roxio Popcorn, VideoExpress, Miglia

Is TV the New TV?

Jason Lopez — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 08:01:06 +0000

What would your response be to this scenario: you’re watching television and you forget that it’s being distributed to you on the Internet. Who won? TV or the Web? James McQuivey covers television and media technologies for Forrester Research. He spoke with PodTech’s Jason Lopez about the current state of affairs for this audio podcast.

Friday’s announcement from Yahoo! Video touted a “wider viewing experience,” in addition to more content, bigger files and more sharing opportunities. And then there are those who ask whether another user-generated video site is what we really need.

Then there’s Apple TV Take Two. Steve Jobs and Apple continue to suggest that integration, convergence and usability might help consumers make the switch from TV as they know it to greater reliance on broadband and computing for downloadable video (including movie rentals).

Regardless of where things will ultimately end up, TV set sales are still big business (you may have seen coverage recently suggesting that men would still make considerable sacrifices in order to get a 50-inch TV display. We might as well ask: what would you be willing to give up for a big TV?

Tags: television, Internet, James McQuivey, Yahoo! Video, user-generated, Apple TV, Take Two, Steve Jobs, convergence

MacWorld 2008 and CES 2009: Steve Jobs’ Keynote Address Previews

Kevin Edwards — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 17:00:06 +0000

PodTech’s Jason Lopez and Kevin Edwards roamed the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show floor where it seems Apple rules–in certain product categories–without even being there. In this 18 minute podcast Kevin and Jason check out a few of the many products made for iPods/iPhones and talk about Apple at CES 2009 in anticipation of the MacWorld Keynote Address next week.

Also, Kevin spews his Mac-cult inspired thoughts on Steve Jobs delivering the keynote at CES 2009

See the Flickr photo set for this podcast.

Tags: Jason Lopez, Kevin Edwards, CES 2008, CES 2009, Consumer Electronics Show, Apple, iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, CES, MacWorld, Steve Jobs, Keynote

What Is Human Computer Interaction? Part-1

Kamla Bhatt — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 20:44:26 +0000

What is human computer interaction? Prof John Canny of UC Berkeley explains that human computer interaction is making computers (technology) available to people. Macintosh is an early example of this. According to John Steve Jobs of Apple was a key entrepreneur and agent in making this happen, but lot of the early ideas came from Xerox Parc and their Star project (Yogen Dalal of Mayfield Fund was a key member of the Star team).

Tags: Human Computer Interaction, John Canny, Macintosh, Steve Jobs, Yogen Dalal

Audio: PRSA Live - What’s Hot and What’s Not in 2008

Jennifer Jones — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 04:55:56 +0000

Wall Street Journal’s Kara Swisher and Don Clark, Business Week’s Rob Hof, Forbes‘ Victoria Murphy Barrett and Scobleizer’s Robert Scoble joined Ann Winblad of venture capital firm Hummer Winblad, at the annual What’s Hot and What’s Not, for 2008. Hosted by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) at Predictions 2008 these top-tier journalists gave predictions about Facebook, Apple and MySpace, among other companies.

Video: PRSA Live - Q&A from What’s Hot and What’s Not in 2008

Jennifer Jones — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 04:51:04 +0000

Video: PRSA Live - What’s Hot and What’s Not in 2008

Jennifer Jones — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 04:48:11 +0000

Intel Ships New 45nm Penryn Chip

Paul Lancour — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 19:01:30 +0000

Gordon Moore’s Law will remain in effect for the foreseeable future. Intel Corporation’s new 45nm Penryn microprocessor relies on a new recipe that combines the element Hafnium and metal gate technology to increase performance and significantly reduce eco-unfriendly, wasteful electricity leaks. (more…)

Tags: Moore’s Law, 45nm, Penryn, microprocessor, new recipe, Hafnium, metal gate, eco-unfriendly, wasteful electricity leaks

Demo: AtTask Project and Portfolio Management

Brad Baldwin — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 01:23:04 +0000

AtTask’s VP of Sales, Abraham Knell, shows off the @task Project and Portfolio Management solution. The application has a simple UI that is easy to learn and use. Tabs and drop-down menus in headers give the web-based offering a rich, desktop client-like experience without the hassle of software installs or updates. AtTask offers APIs to integrate into other Enterprise and workflow systems. And with http://www.apple.com Apple as a client, it should come as no surprise that there is an iPhone Web App.

Employees can collaborate and update projects through Microsoft Outlook. Dashboards with traditional Gantt charts and graphical cost, risk, and benefit views make it easy for management to determine status.

Tags: AtTask, Abraham Knell, @task, iPhone Web App, Microsoft Outlook

AtTask is Used by Apple, Disney, CBS, and More…

Brad Baldwin — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 01:18:55 +0000

AtTask provides on-demand project and portfolio management software. Scott Johnson, CEO and Founder, and his team have self-funded and enhanced the @task offering over the past six years with dashboard UI, Web 2.0 collaboration, workflow, templates, APIs, and global language support. In that time, AtTask landed an impressive customer list, including Apple, Chevron, Johnson & Johnson, Toyota, and more. To accelerate their business, AtTask recently completed a $7M funding round from http://www.openviewpartners.com/ OpenView Venture Partners.

Johnson introduces AtTask, the company, and provides details of the new Enterprise version of @task. AtTask also launched Project Daily, a blog with the best thoughts coming out of the project management industry.

Tags: AtTask, Scott Johnson, @task, Web 2.0, Apple, Chevron, Johnson & Johnson, Toyota

Shantanu Narayen, President and COO of Adobe

Kamla Bhatt — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 23:38:40 +0000

Helping people engage with ideas and information is how Shantanu Narayen, President and COO of Adobe describes what his company does best. Adobe recently completed 25 years and is expected to about $3 billion in revenue this year.

I caught up with Shantanu, who was on a whistle-stop tour of Bangalore, to find out about Adobe’s Rich Internet Application (RIA) initiative and how it is working wiht the open source community. Shantanu also talks about innovation, and how Adobe nurtures innovation through its Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) program.

Prior to Adobe Shantu co-founded Pictra, a digital photo-sharing startup in the late 1990s. Before that he worked with Apple and Silicon Graphics.

Tune back in for Part-2 where Shantanu talks about Adobe’s mobile strategy and about Adobe India.

Tags: Shantanu Narayen, Adobe, Bangalore, RIA, Entrepreneur, EIR, Pictra, Apple, Silicon Graphics

Building Confidence in Enterprise Security

editor — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 22:53:58 +0000

This podcast previews a new Symantec blog and webcast series titled “Building Confidence in Enterprise Security.” Andre Gold head of technology risk management at ING U.S. Financial Services, and Samir Kapuria, distinguished principal at Symantec Corp., will embark on a monthly video and blog program addressing IT Compliance, IT Risk Management, and operational security. We’d like to get listener feedback for topic ideas for future shows. Take our survey and your name will be entered into a drawing for an Apple iPod.

Tags: Symantec, Building Confidence in Enterprise Security, Andre Gold, ING, Samir Kapuria, IT Compliance, IT Risk Management, Apple, iPod

Silicon Valley Turns Out to Honor Top Technologists

Aron Pruiett — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 19:26:47 +0000

Silicon Valley is not known for paying much attention to its own history but things are changing. The Computer History Museum’s 2007 Fellow Awards was sold out as much of Silicon Valley’s aristocracy turned out for a $250 fund raising dinner that paid tribute to four top technologists: Morris Chang, John Hennessy, David A. Patterson and Charles Thacker.

Morris Chang helped create the fabless chip industry. And in doing so, he created a massive innovation platform by enabling small bands of chip designers to buy production time as they needed it. Chip companies no longer needed to own and maintain hugely expensive chip fabs.

John Hennessy helped develop the RISC microprocessor, whose features are found in all modern microprocessors. As president of Stanford University, he has made huge contributions to education, and the creation of a student body that has gone on to found many of Silicon Valley’s largest companies. And his work has helped generate huge licensing revenue for the university.

David Patterson made important contributions to microprocessor design and RAID data storage technologies. As head of Computer Science at the University of California at Berkeley, he has helped educate generations of computer engineers.

Charles Thacker helped create the personal computer. His work at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center led to the Alto, the machine that inspired Apple Computer and featured a windows graphical user interface. He co-developed Ethernet and also the laser printer.

Tags: Morris Chang, John Hennessy, David A. Patterson, Charles Thacker, John Hennessy, David Patterson, Charles Thacker

Behind the scenes at the Computer History Museum

editor — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 21:58:30 +0000

The Computer History Museum is a fascinating visit for anyone interested in the history of computing and Silicon Valley. But there’s more there than meets the eye. Literally. Hidden from public view is a huge back storeroom with hundreds of artifacts, including a prototype tablet computer called the Apple “Cadillac,” an AT&T picture phone, Apple Lisas and the Altair 8800, a popular kit computer, which a young company called Micro-Soft wrote programming tools for. Also get a peek at a rare Canon Cat PC, designed by Jef Raskin of Apple fame, as well as wooden wheels from the famous Wagon Wheel bar, a Silicon Valley institution.

Tags: Computer History Museum, Silicon Valley, Apple Lisas, Altair 8800

Box.net: Part 2 - Easily Access Your Files Anywhere, Anytime

John Ince — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 18:59:09 +0000

Aaron Levie, CEO of Box.net, and Karen Appleton, vice president of Business Development, speak with John Ince about the changing landscape of storage and why Box.net has been able to attract more than a million users, offering a service that allows anyone to access their important files remotely and share them easily with friends and business colleagues.

Tags: Aaron Levie, Box.net, Karen Appleton, storage

Free iTunes at Starbucks - Larry Magid interviews Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz

editor — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 21:49:43 +0000

Almost overshadowed by the reaction to Apple’s iPhone price cuts and its new iPods was the news that Apple and Starbucks reached a deal where anyone will be able to use iTunes at Starbucks without having to pay Wifi fees. This will work with Macs, PCs and the WiFi equipped iPod touch and iPhone. Users will be able to purchase songs being played at the local Starbucks and see the last 10 songs played.

To get a better understanding of the service, Larry spoke with Starbucks CEO and founder Howard Schultz who participated in Apple’s announcement.

Tags: iPhone price cuts, Apple and Starbucks, iTunes at Starbucks, Howard Schultz

Office 2.0 and the future of work

editor — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 18:50:41 +0000

Will the use of online apps change the way people work? That’s a question discussed by a panel at theOffice 2.0 conference, moderated by Om Malik from GigaOm: Steven Aldrich, VP of strategy & innovation, Intuit; Denis Browne, senior VP, SAP Labs; Danny Kolke, CEO of Etelos; Richard McAniff, corporate VP, Microsoft Office; and Jonathan Rochelle, product manager, Google Docs and Spreadsheets.

Also on TechOne: Larry Magid talks about the controversy and interviews Apple VP Phil Schiller about the pricing on the day of the original announcement. It was before the firestorm and Jobs’ “apology.”

Tags: Office 2.0, Om Malik, GigaOm, Steven Aldrich, Intuit, Denis Browne, SAP Labs, Danny Kolke, Etelos, Richard McAniff, Microsoft Office, Jonathan Rochelle, Google Docs and Spreadsheets, TechOne, Larry Magid, Phil Schiller

iPhone Price Peeves Early Adopters

editor — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 00:55:01 +0000

On Wednesday, September 5, Steve Jobs announced several new iPods and made the stunning announcement that he was lowering the price of the 8GB iPhone from $599 to $399. This may be good news for potential iPhone buyers but it was a punch in the stomach for some early adopters who felt Apple was punishing them for having been loyal early buyers. After a day of online protests, Steve Jobs said he got it, and issued an open letter to iPhone customers saying that anyone who bought an iPhone would get $100 credit to use at an Apple online or brick and mortar store.

Larry Magid talks about the controversy and interviews Apple VP Phil Schiller about the pricing on the day of the original announcement. It was before the firestorm and Jobs’ “apology.”

Tags: Steve Jobs, iPhone, Phil Schiller

RSS: Making It Work Best For Marketers

Jennifer Jones — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 04:47:42 +0000

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is today’s simplest marketing and publishing tool allowing content to get distributed fast and efficiently.

Robyn Tippins, Yahoo’s community manager for MyBlogLog tells Jennifer Jones just how to make RSS work best.

Putting it on the top right hand side of a Website and following the leads of companies like Apple, IBM, NetFlix and the History Channel is the smartest strategy, says Tippins. Tippins has been a social media expert since 1993 and her work has appeared all over the Web.

Tags: Really Simple Syndication, RSS, Robyn Tippins, MyBlogLog, Jennifer Jones, social media

Microsoft seeks closer ties with Silicon Valley and startups

Tom Foremski — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 00:33:38 +0000

Dan’l Lewin, corporate vice president at Microsoft, heads up its strategic and emerging business initiatives. This means that he and his team work with startups in Silicon Valley and beyond, and with large companies partnering with Microsoft. Mr. Lewin is a 30-year veteran of Silicon Valley, and has held top jobs at Apple and Next. Tom Foremski interviews Mr. Lewin at Microsoft’s campus in the heart of Silicon Valley, a stone’s throw from Google.

Also: Larry Magid interviews Tony Perkins of AlwaysOn.

Tags: Dan’l Lewin, Microsoft, Silicon Valley, Tom Foremski, Larry Magid, Tony Perkins, AlwaysOn

LunchMeet: Could OpenMoko be the Open iPhone Killer?

Eddie Codel — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 14:17:24 +0000

OpenMoko is an interesting project that is an open linux-based mobile communications platform. Primarily an open source operating system and applicatiion environment, when combined with a hardware device by FIC, it quickly feels like an open threat to the Apple iPhone. While at Linuxworld, I spoke with Michael Shiloh, a developer and envagelist for OpenMoko, who gave me a rundown on this killer combination complete with a demo of the prototype device.

Tags: OpenMoko, linux, FIC, Apple, iPhone, Linuxworld, Michael Shiloh

TechOne: Sun breakthrough in processors: Q part 3

editor — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 23:10:28 +0000

Sun Microsystems leaped ahead of rivals this week with what it claims is the world’s fastest server microprocessor. Analysts such as Nathan Brookwood from Insight64 were impressed. Sun also said that it would open up all of its business units as standalone profit centers in a bid to attract additional partners using Sun technologies.

Aron Pruiett reports on the Social Media Experience, a panel discussion and the question of online diversity; Larry Magid takes a quick look at Apple’s latest hardware and software.

Tags: Sun Microsystems, Nathan Brookwood, Insight64, Aron Pruiett, Social Media, Larry Magid, Apple

TechOne: Sun breakthrough in processors part 2

editor — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 07:21:56 +0000

Here is Part 2 of Sun’s presentation. Part 3 and Q&A with press and partners coming soon.

Aron Pruiett reports on the vaporization of capital from mainstream media the result of amateurs; Larry Magid takes a quick look at Apple’s latest hardware and software.

Tags: Sun Microsystems, Nathan Brookwood, Insight64, Aron Pruiett, Larry Magid, Apple