A few days ago, we announced that Microsoft will soon be releasing a new version of their portable media player: The Zune HD. Now, here’s a first look of the device, which, compared to the iPod Touch, apparently has a way better looking screen and more efficient UI. Check it out:
[Via Gizmodo]
By Sterling “Chip” Camden
Contributing Writer, [GAS]
It seemed impossible to me that I could be the only one having these kinds of ideas – and I was correct. Who else would you expect to be pondering the future of online communication but the folks at Google?
Lars and Jens Rasmussen came to Google in 2004 as the creators of what became Google Maps, but they were already thinking about what should come next. They began by asking some questions about the state of online communication:
To answer those questions, they produced Google Wave, which will be launched later this year but is now being opened for developer preview. Wave provides hosted conversations, to which participants are invited. Replies are automatically threaded, and you can see updates as they are being typed (optionally). Shared edits are tracked and can be retraced. A wave can contain various kinds of media (images, video, maps, etc.), blurring the line between a message thread and a document. It could easily take the place of email, chat, blog, twitter, wiki, and social site all at the same time.
The initiating server acts as the authority for a wave, but replying wavelets can be hosted on other wave servers. Communication between all parties is secured using TLS.
Wave starts with an open protocol based on XMPP, an XML format used by Jabber and other messaging services. But the Wave protocol extends XMPP to provide far more features than simple chat. In fact, all of the features listed above are included in the protocol, rather than being layered on at the client level. That means that third parties can produce their own products that use the protocol to interact with Wave and with each other – which Google is encouraging. They’re not only publishing libraries in Python and Java to support this, they also plan to open source the entire project.
Of course, Google will provide its own Wave client (pictured below), which I expect will garner the lion’s share of user accounts – at least at first.
The fact that participants have to be added to a conversation by the authoritative server solves the problem of comment spam on blogs, but I have to wonder about how they intend to handle what I like to call “cold spam” – spam messages that come out of nowhere. I presume (but cannot verify) that when you’re added as a participant, you get the option to decline – but if a spammer has your Wave user ID, then perhaps they could still annoy you to death with participant requests. Besides advising users to be careful about sharing their IDs, how does Wave plan to protect them? Do they have a plan for defeating dictionary attacks, for example? How easy will it be to ban a user – or a third-party server domain?
Provided the security and spam threats are neutralized, I can see this protocol becoming the wave of the future (forgive me) in online communications, especially for business transactions that are currently being communicated over email (but shouldn’t be). I certainly plan to give it a try.
Once again, the folks at Sarcastic Gamer took one of Microsoft’s brilliant promotional clip, and turned it into something even more brilliant. Check it out:
[Via Geekologie]
Warning: This video contains strong language.
Shame on the guy with the goggles when he lies to the teacher about having his full face shield on.
It’s a good thing nobody got hurt though.
A US troop ship has been swiftly sunk in the Gulf of Mexico. But it’s not a military disaster – rather an ecological project.
To put things into context the boat, the General Hoyt S Vandenberg, is a decommissioned veteran of the second world war. Originally named the General Harry Taylor, it was later used for tracking missiles before being retired in 1983.
The 523-foot long behemoth is now part of a project run by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The sinking, which took just two minutes after a series of controlled explosions, is to allow it to rest on the ocean floor seven miles south of Key West.
The idea is that it will naturally transform into one of the world’s largest artificial reefs, attracting sea creatures and relieving the stress on natural reefs in the crowded waters of the area. Organizer Joe Weatherby explained the natural transformation should be a simple and quick process: “The marine life grows on the wreck and the little fish come and the big fish eat the little fish and just like that [it’s done].”
The new reef is also expected to become a tourist attraction for divers, with predictions it could generate $8 million a year for the region. That would make the project an immediate financial success as it cost $6 million to sink the boat. The majority of this cost came from a mammoth operation to strip the boat of anything which could contaminate the ocean, including wiring, asbestos and even paint.
Curious about some of the new game titles that will be unveiled at E3 2009? GT has you covered with their picks of the 10 most anticipated games of the upcoming exposition. Check it out.
[Via TechEblog]
Ladies and Gentlemen, let me present you Damien Walters, one of the most amazing gymnast I’ve ever seen.
I don’t know about you, but this guy leaves me feeling like a complete blob, even though I’m in fairly good shape now. *sigh*
By Jimmy Rogers (@me)
Contributing Writer, [GAS]
It’s that time of year again! The sun is shining, the frogs are croaking, and the Apples are slowly ripening. Not the kind that you eat, but the kind with which you listen to music! On June 8th, Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) will return to San Francisco and likely refresh the Apple product line for the next six months.
What should we expect at this big event? Well first and foremost, WWDC is a developer-centric meet-up and has workshops for anyone interested in designing apps for the OS X platform. For that reason, the product announcements to come out of WWDC have been a bit hum-drum in the last few years. I expect this year to be different. Why?
As far as I know, no Green Lantern movie is presently in the works, but an industrious fan thought that one should be, so he turned his vision into reality by producing this awesome trailer.
[Via BuzzFeed]
Microsoft has launched the new edition of its Zune music player. It will clearly be the best Zune yet, but that doesn’t necessarily mean many people will need, or even want, to buy one.
The supposed big selling point is given away in the name: the Zune HD. Yep, you can now get crystal-clear high-resolution pictures…. on a 3.3” screen.
To be fair, you can also hook the device up to an HD television and watch the programming that way. There are, presumably, some pretty strained circumstances in which this could be useful (you’re staying for a week with your grandparents, who don’t have broadband or a Blu-ray player, but did get confused by the digital broadcasting transition and bought an HD set), but it’s not exactly something people have been crying out for. The more useful HD feature is that the new Zune will be able to pick up HD radio stations.
Among the Zune’s other features are a Wi-fi receiver with built-in web browser (though this is again the point to reflect on the 3.3” screen). There’ll also be dedicated Zune content available to download through the Xbox Live service. And the display will be OLED rather than LCD, meaning battery life could be longer for video playback.
Pricing for the device isn’t yet available. The big problem seems to be that for so much functionality it would need such a hefty price that the only way to get it selling among the mass market would be to have a trendy, cool, ‘must-have’ brand like, erm, the iPod.
There’s no denying that if the performance matches the breadth of the feature list, the Zune HD will be a seriously sweet bit of kit. But unless you’ve just had your entire collection of gadgets stolen and have an insurance check burning a hole in your pocket to replace them, there doesn’t really seem much likelihood of it filling enough gaps in your audio-video needs to be a worthwhile purchase.