Google to serve ads, come shine or rain

If you think the smarts of your smartphone are more for other people’s benefit than your own, you’re not going to like Google’s latest idea: handset sensors that exist to target advertising based on your environmental conditions.

The company has joined Microsoft (remotes that charge you to skip commercials) and Nokia (vibrating tattoos to indicate incoming phone calls) in what’s truly been a week of wacky patent ideas.

Google’s suggestion is for a smartphone handset than includes sensors measuring everything from temperature and humidity to light and noise levels. These would then be used to serve up “relevant” adverts. The patent application suggests this could work in an extremely simplified manner: ads for coats when it’s cold and air conditioning when it’s hot.

Other suggested uses of the system are a bit more ambitious: if you make a call, the phone could detect the sounds of sports or musical instruments in the background, identify the sport or style of music, then hit you up with more ads. This really doesn’t seem much of an advantage seeing as Google will probably have already got a much better idea of your tastes from your online searches, not to mention the fact that geolocation tools showing whether you are in Carnegie Hall or Giants Stadium are probably going to be a quicker and more reliable way to figure out your activity.

As with the other companies, Google is currently saying this is just an idea that it felt safest to patent, rather than something its actively working on to produce. (The filing was actually made back in 2008 but was only approved this week.) That said, it’s obviously already anticipated a backlash and makes a point of noting the feature could be switched off.

Cookie Mind-Bomb [Comic]

It’s…it’s simply genius.

Pretty accurate description of how I’d react.

[Source: Whompcomic | Via The BDag]

Red Bull Creator Passes away at 89

A man, who many gamers and all-nighters alike owe a life debt of gratitude, has passed away today. Sadly, the man responsible for inventing the caffeine and taurine spiked energy drink Red Bull has died at the age of 89 of natural causes.

Telegraph reports:

Chaleo Yoovidhya, one of Thailand’s richest man, died of natural causes on Saturday, Thai state television broadcaster MCOT said.
Mr Chaleo founded T.C. Pharmaceuticals. In the 1970s, it formulated an energy drink prototype called Krathing Daeng, or Red Bull in English. It was popular among Thai truck drivers and laborers.

The original drink named in the article actually translated to Red Water Buffalo, but the Bull became the end product when it was branded for North American addicts.

It is this nectar of the gods that gives us all the ability to stay awake for one more raid, one more all night game session, one more rave, one more study session, and one more drink.

I tip my (not) recommended third Redbull in 24 hours to respect your achievements.

Everyone dies, but not everyone stays awake long enough to actually live!

GAME reaches final level

European video game retailer GAME is looking doomed after going into administration. The news comes just weeks after it was unable to agree credit terms to stock Mass Effect 3.

As we wrote at the time, GAME had attempted to negotiate new deals with its suppliers after experiencing cashflow problems. The retail chain said a recent agreement with its own creditors to borrow extra money meant it had to treat all suppliers equally and couldn’t afford to give special concessions, even to a giant like Electronic Arts. That meant it had to cancel pre-orders for Mass Effect 3, even though it likely would have been a top seller.

Perhaps inevitably the news caused a domino effect, with other game publishers also becoming wary about supplying games without up-front payment. That led to further concerns about cashflow, along with worries that the company wouldn’t be able to make its quarterly rental on store locations, which is due at the end of this week.

Yesterday morning GAME requested that shares in the company be suspended from trading. It then applied for voluntary administration. This is roughly equivalent to the US chapter 11 bankruptcy and means the company has 10 days’ protection from creditors to find a solution before independent administrators can consider liquidating the business. The stores will remain open for business during this time.

Two financial fund groups along with US chain GameStop are believed to be interested in taking over the firm. The main potential sticking point is how much of the existing debt a buyer would take on.

If the company is liquidated, customers would likely be low down the list of priorities for payouts, particularly given the British tax department is among the creditors. That may mean its worth thinking about spending any online or loyalty card credit in the coming days.

Childhood of a Circle [Video]

This is a really cute little animation. The story is somewhat simplistic, but perhaps that’s more of a product of the cynicism of age than a failing on the video’s part. It makes me yearn for the days when the most basic cartoon could completely capture my attention; when I wasn’t so used to the 16-second attention span we’ve developed on the Internet. The music and graphic art are really beautiful. I don’t really know much about animation, but it seems pretty well spun to me. What’s your opinion?

Childhood of a Circle from Kadavre Exquis on Vimeo.

Justice League – Public Sign Style [Pic]

When the Justice League finally come out of hiding, these are the signs that we will see for Justice League zones where the JL will defend you from baddies in the night.