For the last 50 years Japanese car firms have been slowly conquering auto markets around the world with Toyota recently overtaking General Motors as the largest global car manufacturer. Below is an Infographic from Infographiclabs that compares US and Japanese firms along with data on sales over the last few decades.
Check out the entire Infographic at StudyDriving.com
We all have our little quirks, and if yours is to try to mimic how other people speak, here’s something that will tickle your fancy. Some time last month, NTT Communications announced a pretty cool mobile phone service. Dubbed Mane-1GP (available in Japan only), the service works this way:
How does the system analyze the recordings? The concept is simple: an algorithm was developed specifically for the analysis of recordings, to compare the original and the user-inputted recording. The analysis is based on the following factors:
Knowing just how good the Japanese are with technology, you can bet that these analyses are technologically sound! The service is compatible with most mobile phones available in Japan via the major phone companies: NTT DOCOMO, au, and SoftBank Mobile; and each call will cost a person about 10 to 20 yen. Oh, and to make things more interesting, users can invite friends to join a “competition” wherein the person who gets the highest score wins!
NTT Communications is also known for its other services such as international data service centers, but this piece of news just goes to show that the telecommunications giant is not averse to offering fun and quirky services to their clients!
It may not be for everyone, but hey, each to his own, right?
When was the last time that you actually went to the movie theater to watch a film on the big screen? I know a LOT of people (that includes me) who would rather watch movies at home. For varying reasons, this option appeals to some, and quite understandably. Movie theaters charge an arm and a leg these days, and going out to battle the traffic and the crowds is something that is totally depressing. More so, with technological developments, watching a movie at home can actually rival the movie house experience.
With the pending release of Amimon’s WHDI dongle, I will not be surprised if the number of people opting to stay home to watch movies skyrocket. The WHDI stick that is supposed to be released in 2011 (hopefully) is being touted as THE gadget that will revolutionize how we watch movies at home. The basic idea is that you plug the dongle into any compatible device, and it will transmit your videos wirelessly to your kick-butt flat screen TV.
The device has an HDMI male port – so playback devices such as a camera, phone, or computer with an HDMI port will work – as well as a USB cable (for power). So you plug this into your gadget that contains the video/movie you want to watch. At the other end of the system, you need your high-def TV (duh) which should have a receiver. The result? Wireless video streaming with minimal lag.
Systems like this one are already in existence – why is there much excitement over the release of WHDI?
Can’t wait till 2011 now, can you?
Photo credit: Dong Ngo/CNET
If you think Star Trek’s tricorder is still just a figment of imagination, then you are definitely wrong. Things sci-fi are fast becoming reality everyday, and the medical tricorder is one of those things. (Yup, I can’t help but write about something eerily reminiscent of those good old Star Trek days.)
In Star Trek, all the doctor has to do to diagnose diseases is to hold the medical tricorder in front of a person, wave it around as if doing voodoo, and wait for the diagnosis.
GE’s Vscan, which came out early this year, is an ultrasound-imaging device that is only the size of a smartphone. The handheld device obviously will not diagnose all kinds of disease, but it is a step towards handheld diagnostic equipment. It can help measure and analyse data relating to abdominal issues and even more critical things, like cardiac issues.
Physicians are quite enthusiastic about the device, since it does help a lot in early diagnosis. Instead of having to schedule their patients for ultrasound, they can already perform it wherever they may be, whether that be in a clinic or in an accident site. It is also very handy, weighing less than 3 pounds, and has a battery life of more than 1 hour. It has its own battery charging station and can be connected to a printer and other add-ons via its USB port.
The VScan is available in the market for only $7,900. (Yeah right, ONLY!) Definitely not a toy to be bought for mere amusement, but well worth it for doctors, especially those that are part of emergency response teams and those located in remote areas.
Facebook addicts enthusiasts were sure to have noticed the outage last night – or early morning, rather. The downtime lasted for about two and a half hours – the longest in four years. While some people (like yours truly) just gave up and forgot about the social networking site for a while, others just got totally frustrated.
Naturally, the Facebook Team released a statement to provide an explanation regarding what happened. In a note, Robert Johnson tells us this: “The key flaw that caused this outage to be so severe was an unfortunate handling of an error condition. An automated system for verifying configuration values ended up causing much more damage than it fixed.”
He goes on to say that the system resulted in a feedback loop that bogged down the database. In short, users couldn’t access the site. Interestingly, the only way they could fix the situation was to shut down the site.
Think about it this way…if your computer freezes and will not respond no matter what you do, what is your course of action? The chances are that you will simply turn the device off and then have it up and running again in a few minutes. That’s basically what the tech guys at Facebook did. Of course, the downtime took much longer than rebooting your computer, but that is only understandable considering the larger scale of the operations of the social network.
In any case, they had the site up in a couple of hours and we’re all enjoying the new Facebook look. Don’t be surprised, though, if you encounter a few problems here and there in the next few days. They’re still looking at the issue and doing a few tweaks. What matters now is that you can go check your food in Cafe World and make sure they don’t spoil.
Do you think the way your smart phone changes the display orientation when you flip it is cool? Or maybe you have lots of fun playing around with voice commands. I’m sure that your smart phone can do a lot of awesome stuff, but that’s nothing when compared to what Intel is working on. If they make any progress on what they call “context-aware computing,” we just might be playing with gadgets that can read our minds!
When I first read about context-aware computing, I mentally shouted “Scary!” At the same time, I cannot suppress the surge of excitement. This technology is BIG. The scary part, I think, is the result of watching/reading too much science fiction – that, and the recent news about lying robots.
So anyway, a group of Intel researchers announced that they are working on this technology that will ultimately be able to gather and process information from the behavior of the user. This data will then be used to predict the mood and the feelings of the user. Based on the predictions, the gadgets will be able to provide suggestions. Pretty cool, huh?
Justin Rattner, head of the research group excitedly shared the potential of this technology:
“Future devices will learn about you, your day, where you are and where you are going to know what you want. It gives devices almost this sixth sense of anticipating what a user will need in the future, whether that’s the next few moments or at dinner later in the day.”
If I were the user, the gadget will not have too many problems in predicting what I will need: Chocolate, steak, and Jack Daniels.
Photo credit: Mr Thinktank