Horizons

Google cofounder Sergey Brin wears a pair of Google Glass. (Eric Risberg/AP/File)

Google Glass: Apps, gestures, and audio revealed at SXSW

By Jeff Ward-Bailey, Contributor / 03.13.13

Given how much buzz surrounds Google Glass, we know curiously little about it. Glass, which consists of a miniature heads-up display and camera attached to lensless eyeglass frames, promises all sort of info on demand, but Google is notoriously strict about letting people test it out -- and as a result, details on how Glass will actually fit into our day-to-day lives have been sparse.

But thanks to a Google presentation at the South by Southwest conference this week, we now know a little more about Glass, including how it’s controlled and how apps might work on the device.

Senior developer advocate Timothy Jordan took to the stage in Austin to show how Glass responds to user input. We knew already that the glasses can be controlled by voice -- “Okay, Glass, take a picture,” for example -- but Jordan demonstrated touch and head gestures as well. By subtly moving your eyes, you can turn the screen on and manipulate information; by gently tilting your head you can scroll through different screens.

During the presentation Mr. Jordan also used Glass to take photos and post to the Google+ social network. He also replied to an email by using voice dictation -- Glass displayed the text of his reply, and allowed him to edit it before sending. And Jordan used Glass to translate the phrase “Thank you” into Japanese; the audio result was loud enough for him to hear but too quiet for the audience to catch.

We also now know a little more about how third-party apps will work with Glass. Jordan modeled a few apps that are still under development, including one that displays headlines and photos from The New York Times, and another called “Skitch” that lets users collaborate by doodling on or otherwise marking up images. Jordan cautioned that because Glass is so different from smart phones, developers will need to write new software for the platform rather than trying to port their existing apps to Glass. And he added that developers should keep apps simple, since the glasses are positioned right in front of a user’s eyes. (It’s a safe bet that no one wants to be bombarded with ads and trivial updates thrust directly into their field of vision.)

Google also announced that Glass will work for those who would be wearing glasses anyway: “The Glass design is modular, so you will be able to add frames and lenses that match your prescription.” The design for prescription frames is still under development, but the news likely comes as a relief to anyone who was hoping to turn their glasses into Glasses.

Readers, what’s your take? Are you getting more excited about Glass as more information is revealed? Or is this something you’d never be caught dead wearing? Let us know in the comments section below.

For more tech news, follow Jeff on Twitter: @jeffwardbailey.

Read entire post | Comments

The new SimCity has arrived. (Electronic Arts )

SimCity crumbles under online issues

By Aimee Ortiz / 03.08.13

On March 5, gamers eagerly downloaded Electronic Arts's (EA) latest game, SimCity. By March 6, players were angrily posting about the game (or lack thereof) and by March 7, Amazon stopped selling it.

SimCity was highly anticipated. Early reviews heaped on praise, but what should have been a magnificent launch for EA has turned into a nightmare. The latest SimCity game will not work unless you are playing online. Games save to EA's servers automatically and friends can build up regions together. But things fell apart, either by fan overwhelming the servers or through simply mismanagement on the part of EA. 

“We are hitting a number of problems with our server architecture which has seen players encountering bugs and long wait times to enter servers,” writes SimCity Senior Producer Kip Katsarelis. “This is, obviously, not the situation we wanted for our launch week and we want you to know that we are putting everything we have at resolving these issues." 

So what is the problem with SimCity? Well, to start off, the long wait times for server connection have frustrated players across the Internet. Wait times of 30 minutes or more have been reported as well as saving problems. That last one, the saving problems, has had a huge effect on digital mayors. Players have reported losing hours of work and planning due to connectivity problems.

“How would you feel if you waited for the new Corvette to come out, preordered one, and when you try to drive it home with its massive V8 engine the dashboard tells you, ‘Gas Pump not connected, aborting’?” writes Amazon user Jonny. “Bottom line: Go up to a random stranger, preferably a musclehead, hand him your $60 and ask him to punch you in the face. You'll get more out of your money, and it'll be less painful to watch."

The game’s previous high ratings have slipped. Amazon users hold it at one star and the site has a notification up, warning users about the server problems. Polygon has dropped its original rating of the game, a 9.5, down to a mere 4.0.

SimCity’s always-online requirement has been seen as the root of the problem. Unlike the previous Sims games, SimCity requires the gamer to be online at all times. The need for an Internet connection is a way to promote the social connectivity of the Sims as well as a way to slowdown piracy. Users’ games are stored in the cloud, giving them access to their game anywhere, that is, if the game would work.

EA’s Maxis studio previously explained that the online requirement exists because all of the cities created in SimCity are a part of a larger region. The region shares factors like pollution, resources, and crime. In order to keep the region alive, the game must be online. However, not all fans of the game want to be a part of the region.

There was some success for the video game. According to Mr. Katsarelis, the first 24 hours of SimCity brought 38 million buildings and 7.5 million kilometers of digital road.

For more tech news, follow Aimee on Twitter, @aimee_ortiz

Apple's rumored iRadio streaming music service may be delayed due to tough negotiations with record labels, say reports in the New York Times and New York Post. Here, a woman tries out an Apple iPad in a retail store in Mumbai, India. (Vivek Prakash/Reuters)

Apple's rumored iRadio service could be delayed until summer

By Jeff Ward-Bailey, Contributor / 03.08.13

iRadio might be Apple's worst-kept secret: the company's never announced it (or named it), but details have been trickling out for months of a Pandora-like music service that would come installed on iOS devices and would serve up a free, personalized stream of tunes. Leaks suggested that Apple was hoping to unveil iRadio early this year, but now a report from the New York Times says we probably won't see it until summer at the earliest.

It all comes down to label negotiations, according to the Times. In order to operate iRadio, Apple has to secure record labels' permission to play the songs in their catalogues. That means paying the labels a small amount of money for each song played on the service (and, hopefully, making that money back through ad sales). But the Times says those negotiations haven't been going well. Sony/ATV is allegedly giving Apple a particularly tough time, which isn't surprising: back in January, the company successfully negotiated a 25 percent increase in royalties from Pandora.

A separate report published in the New York Post outlines more of what's tripping iRadio up: according to anonymous sources, Apple is offering a royalty rate of six cents per 100 songs streamed, half of what Pandora pays (12 cents per 100 plays) and about a sixth of what Spotify pays (35 cents per 100 plays).

It's possible that Apple is playing a long game here, rather than simply trying to lowball the record companies. Thanks to the ubiquity of the iTunes store the company controls about two-thirds of the market of (legal) downloadable music, which gives it some extra negotiating muscle. And there's always the possibility that Apple has something more up its sleeve than a simple Pandora competitor, since similar services abound already -- Rdio, Mog, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and a host of others.

There's one more piece of evidence that Apple had hoped to launch iRadio already: tech site 9to5Mac found some code earlier this month that suggests a "Radio" feature will eventually be activated on iTunes for iPads and iPhones. If you're using iTunes on a computer or iPod, you might already be familiar with Radio, but because the iPad/iPhone code includes a "buy" button, there may be some extra features afoot.

The standard warnings apply here, of course: both the Times and the Post got their information from "people briefed on the talks" between Apple and record companies, so the reports shouldn't necessarily be taken at face value. Nevertheless, these sources all point in a similar direction: to get iRadio off the ground, Apple might need to offer a higher royalty rate to the music companies.

For more tech news, follow Jeff on Twitter: @jeffwardbailey.

Read entire post | Comments

Visitors are reflected in a mirror at the Samsung stand during the Mobile World Congress at Barcelona, Feb. 27, 2013. (Reuters)

Samsung Galaxy S IV: Here's what to expect

By Aimee Ortiz / 03.07.13

Seven days. That’s how much longer the world will have to wait to see Samsung’s Galaxy S IV (GS4). With the follow-up to the world's most popular phone close at hand, the rumor mill is as alive as ever. The occasional leaks have given smart-phone enthusiasts hope and, possibly, a small glimpse of what will arrive on March 14. 

It’s important to note that even the most reputable leaks are still rumors. No mock ups, sketches, or drawings of the GS4 have been revealed. So, to save you the time and trouble of finding each tiny rumor, here is a list of what Samsung is expected to unpack.

Screen size

One of the first whispers out of the rumor mill is that the GS4 will carry a plus-sized screen. Huffington Post’s Jason Gilbert writes that the GS4 will come packing a five-inch screen. This will make it one of the biggest phones on the market, once again dwarfing the iPhone. The GS4 is also expected to come with a full HD resolution (1920x1080) or 440 pixels per inch.

Faster

With the GS3, Samsung provided a 1.4GHz quad-core processor. The GS4 will definitely see an upgrade on its processor but the question comes down to how much of an upgrade.  GSM Israel, an Israeli blog that is claiming to have screenshots of the still-under-wraps phone, published that the GS4 will carry a 1.8GHz quad-core processor.

“Smart” features

The GS4 is expected to have “Smart Scroll.” This technology would allow the phone to use the front-facing camera to sense when your face is looking at it. So, say you’re reading a website and you reach the end of a paragraph. The “Smart Scroll” feature would automatically scroll down, allowing you to continue reading.  GSM Israel’s screenshots of the supposed GS4 show that “Smart Scroll” would indeed be a feature, as well as, “Smart Rotation,” “Smart Pause,” and the return of “Smart Stay,” which checks to see if you're looking at the screen. For example, if you're reading something on the phone, the screen won't dim because it senses that you're still looking at it.

The rumored specs

Processors, “smart scroll,” and size aside, the GSM Israel-alleged GS4 screenshots gave away a few specs. The International Business Times compiled the data from GSM Israel into a neat, easy-to-read list:

- Android 4.2 Jelly Bean

- 2GB RAM

- Storage capacity of 16GB, 32GB and 64GB

- A 13-megapixel camera with Orb camera technology (1080p video capability)

- A 2-megapixel front-facing camera

- Dimensions of 140.1 x 71.8 x 7.7 mm

- 138 grams

- Home button with touch buttons

- Plastic back

- Removable battery

- Black and White color options

As we mentioned before, these are all still rumors. One week from now, Samsung with confirm or deny them all. For now, all we can do is continue to speculate, hope that Samsung got it right, and take each rumor with a little grain of salt. 

For more tech news, follow Aimee on Twitter, @aimee_ortiz 

Actor Rich Sommer plays Kinect on Xbox 360 at the Xbox booth during the E3 2010 conference in Los Angeles June 15. ( Vince Bucci/AP Images for Xbox)

Microsoft's vision: What an upgraded Kinect means for consumers

By Aimee Ortiz / 03.06.13

Walls with digital interfaces, voice-controlled machinery – that’s the future that Microsoft has envisioned. With the company's latest boost to the Kinect, it may actually be possible.

This week, Microsoft debuted new research into what the Kinect hardware is capable of. The research allows for gesture controls like pinch-to-zoom and swiping as a way to control a PC.

The Kinect was originally released for the Xbox 360, Microsoft’s gaming console. The Kinect, an add-on device, hooks up to the Xbox 360 and allows users to control their Xbox without a controller. This means that people can use gestures and voice commands to control their Xbox experience.

Microsoft soon capitalized on what became the world’s fastest-selling gadget. Do-it-yourselfers quickly began taking advantage of the Kinect, creating code and using the motion-sensor device for much more than controlling video games. The vast array of uses that hackers created for the Kinect led Microsoft to release a Windows software development kit (SDK).  

In a video on the Engadget website, Cem Keskin, a researcher at Microsoft Research in Cambridge, England, demonstrates the way the enhanced Kinect works. The Kinect now sees hands as hands, as opposed to seeing them as a single point in space. Technically, the hands are seen in “hand states” meaning they are either opened or closed.

“Since we have these two hand states we can simulate hand grip and therefore, we can inject touch events to drive Windows applications,” says Mr. Keskin in the video.

Keskin goes on to open up the Fresh Paint application. It appears as if he seamlessly connects with the device, allowing him to draw a rather crude house. However, his artwork is not the focus of the video, it is the Kinect’s ability to respond to hand motions accurately and at a timely fashion.

Engadget reports that there is no certainty on just how Microsoft will bring the gesture controller to its audience. Whether it will be a simple SDK, a hardware update, or even the rumored all-new Kinect (to go along with the rumored all-new Xbox).

The Kinect is just a part of how Microsoft sees the future. 

“We want to excite customers about the direction we're heading in and show that we are constantly thinking about new scenarios based on trends and real work in Microsoft Research and the business groups,” says Microsoft’s director of strategic prototyping, Jonathan Cluts, in an interview with EWeek. “These scenarios are based on reality, not science fiction.”

So far, this version of the Kinect will only be available for PCs. Microsoft has not announced any plans to bring the gesture controller to its video games.

2013 is turning out to be a big year for gesture controllers. The Leap Motion Controller, due out in May, adds hand gestures to Macs and PCs. Microsoft has not yet released a timeline or launch date for the enhanced Kinect. 

For more tech news, follow Aimee on Twitter, @aimee_ortiz 

[Editor's note: This article has been changed from its original form to better reflect that this Kinect research is still experimental.]

Google Shopping Express would compete with Amazon Prime and other online-to-offline shopping services, according to a new rumor. Here, the Google logo is modified with two one-Euro coins in an illustration. (Michael Dalder/Reuters/File)

Rumor: Google Shopping Express will compete with Amazon Prime

By Jeff Ward-Bailey, Contributor / 03.06.13

If you’ve got an Amazon Prime account, you know there’s a lot that $79 a year gets you. Access to a library of stream movies and TV shows, e-books that can be downloaded to your Kindle, and free two-day shipping on a hefty portion of the stuff Amazon sells. Now, according to a new rumor, Google is planning to launch a competing service that’ll cost a little less money -- maybe just $64 a year.

TechCrunch’s Alexia Tsotsis reports that “Google Shopping Express” is in development, and is being built to serve as a “focal point” for the company’s existing Google Wallet and Google Shopping services. Put simply, Google is already the first place many people go when they’re researching a product -- and Google Shopping Express could be a way for the company to get a piece of the action when people do decide to buy. TechCrunch also notes that the service would do Amazon Prime one better in an important regard: it would offer same-day delivery from big retailers such as Target, Safeway, and Walmart.

This rumor should be taken with a grain of salt, of course, but it’s not far-fetched to imagine that Google would want to increase its e-commerce presence. And the rumor is reasonably detailed: TechCrunch says Tom Fallows, one of Google’s e-commerce managers, is heading up the project and that Google employees are already “dogfooding” the service (testing it by using it for their own needs).

It’s also worth mentioning that Google recently acquired two e-commerce companies: Bufferbox, a package-delivery service, and Channel Intelligence, a product-referral business. Bufferbox, which is based in Ontario, Canada, bills itself as a kind of parcel delivery alternative. Since lots of people aren’t home to sign for packages, the company says, they can ship them to nearby pickup stations instead. The acquisition certainly gives Google the beginnings of a service that can ship things quickly, although BufferBox is geographically limited right now.

Channel Intelligence, on the other hand, is focused on the online side of things -- providing e-commerce software and services to make it easier for merchants to sell their products online. This includes a “where-to-buy” feature that lets online shoppers know whether a brick-and-mortar store has the product they’re looking for in stock.

This may be a side project, of course -- there’s no guarantee Google will unveil Shopping Express anytime soon (or even at all). But taken together, the rumor and the company’s recent acquisitions seem to suggest that Google is looking at ways to step up its commerce game.

Readers, what’s your take? Does the idea of Google getting into the retail business seem far-fetched? Would you use Shopping Express? Let us know in the comments section below.

For more tech news, follow Jeff on Twitter: @jeffwardbailey.

Read entire post | Comments

Facebook purchased ad company Atlas from Microsoft this week, and could be working on creating its own ad network. Here, a mural at Facebook's California headquarters stylizes the code on which the social network runs. (Paul Sakuma/AP/File)

Facebook scoops up Atlas. More social ads incoming?

By Jeff Ward-Bailey, Contributor / 03.01.13

Facebook has a mountain of data on its users’ activities, locations, and other data -- which allows it to serve up advertisements that are pretty narrowly tailored to individual tastes. Now that ad-focusing ability could get even better.

On Thursday, the company announced it will buy Microsoft’s “Atlas,” an business that helps companies buy, manage, and track ads.

What will Atlas do for Facebook? Neither company has laid out specific plans yet, but the first part of the theory is that better data will lead to more advertising dollars. Facebook has been working for a while to increase its ad revenue -- especially on tablets and phones -- and Atlas brings some powerful data tracking features to the table, which would allow Facebook to better measure how effective its ads are.

Peter Kafka at AllThingsD predicts (based on intel from “smart folks who have some skin in the game”) that once Facebook can prove the value of its ads, it’ll be able to increase ad pricing.

This is important to Facebook, because Atlas is a direct competitor to Google’s ad service -- and right now, Google is eating Facebook’s lunch. DoubleClick can better quantify the success of its ads, and because of this, lots of companies choose to advertise with Google (which means the company can charge more for ads). Atlas could give Facebook the same kind of leverage.

Atlas brings another strength to Facebook: It lets advertisers target ads even more closely, based on the social habits of Facebook users. In other words, advertisers will be better able to understand the relationship between the things you do (as captured by Facebook) and the things you buy, and can capitalize on this information. Eventually, this could lead to Facebook developing an ad network and selling ads outside of its own site. And because the company has such a vast amount of data on what things people are sharing and “liking,” a Facebook-driven social ad network would likely be pretty effective.

Atlas has been around for awhile. Microsoft acquired the company in 2007 when it bought the advertising firm aQuantive for $6 billion. That purchase proved to be ill-fated: Microsoft ultimately wrote off most of the acquisition cost, and has apparently been trying to sell Atlas for some time. In October, Jason del Rey reported in AdAge that Microsoft was working to sell it to New York ad company AppNexus.

Read entire post | Comments

A screenshot of the Leap Motion Controller promo video shows off the small size of the device. (YouTube)

Leap Motion: Forget mouse and keyboard. Control a PC with hand gestures.

By Aimee Ortiz / 02.27.13

Every year, it seems that technology is inching humanity closer to a world like that of the Jetsons. Just today, Leap Motion announced a launch date for its long-awaited motion controller. The tiny gadget hooks up to computers (Macs or PCs) and enables the user to control the computer using only hands gestures. The tiny device will set consumers back $80.

According to the company’s blog, the Leap Motion Controller is no bigger than your iPod and 200 times more accurate than any other gesture controller currently on the market. TGDaily reports that this means the Leap Motion Controller, due out in May, will be able to capture gestures as small as 1/100  of a millimeter at 290 frames per second.

The inspiration for the Leap Motion Controller came from the founders’ frustration with 3-D modeling.

“Molding clay took 10 seconds in real life but 30 minutes with a computer. The mouse and keyboard were simply getting in the way,” says the company blog. "Since available technology couldn't solve our problems, we created the Leap Motion controller.”

When the Leap Motion Controller is plugged into a USB port, the user can perform a variety of hand signals. Swipe to flip a page, pinch-to-zoom, and even use their hands to play games.

Leap Motion also announced an application market that will offer apps specifically designed for the Leap Motion Controller. Autodesk, Corel Painter, Cut the Rope, and a Wreck-it Ralph racing game will already be available for purchase from the store.

However, as with any new technology, developers must be on board in order to make the hardware and the software work. Airspace won’t have nearly as many apps as the Apple App Store or the Google Play marketplace, at least not for now.

The Atlantic’s Alexis C. Madrigal got a chance to try the Leap Motion Controller.

“I've played with a Leap system and I found it fun and interesting. I'm not sure it will replace your touchscreen or laptop input devices, but at $79, it seems worth trying out,” writes Mr. Madrigal.

The Leap Motion Controller will be available to users through BestBuy. Last month, CNET reported that BestBuy had acquired the exclusive launch rights to the Leap Motion Controller. Those who pre-ordered the gadget before today will receive it for the original asking price of $70 and they will be receiving it on May 13.

BestBuy.com and BestBuy stores will begin to sell the Leap Motion Controller on May 18 and 19, respectively.

For more tech news, follow Aimee on Twitter, @aimee_ortiz 

The Copyright Alert System is designed as a "six-strikes" scheme to curb illegal downloads. In this Youtube video, the Center for Copyright Information shows how the system sends information about infringement to a user's ISP. (Youtube)

Copyright Alert System: Six strikes and you're out

By Jeff Ward-Bailey, Contributor / 02.27.13

The "Copyright Alert System," a six-part warning scheme aimed at curbing illegal downloads of music and movies, rolled out this week with the support of the "big five" American Internet providers -- AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner, and Cablevision. The system is designed to gradually warn, and eventually penalize, those suspected of pirating content over peer-to-peer networks.

The entertainment industry has been grappling with the question of how to curb illegal downloads for years now -- since the days of the Napster downloading proto-service, in fact. The "six strikes" policy is the result of cooperation between film and recording industry representatives and American ISPs, and is designed to educate downloaders about copyright infringement, rather than suing or fining suspected pirates.

Here's how the system operates: when a content owner -- say, a movie studio -- detects that its work is being shared on a peer-to-peer network, it makes a note of the IP address that's sharing the file and contacts the ISP that services that address. The ISP then notifies the user with that IP address about the apparent copyright infringement. "Initial alerts are merely educational, letting the user know that unauthorized content sharing was detected on their Internet account," explains the Center for Copyright Information in a video.

Repeated infringement, though, will cause you to run afoul of two "additional alert levels." The first, the CCI says, is "acknowledgement": a user has to fill out a form stating that they've received repeated notices of copyright infringement. The second step is the ominously-named "mitigation," in which the user's ISP reduces the account's connection speed or takes other slightly-punitive measures. (Strangely, the CCI offers "watch[ing] an educational video" as an appropriate alternative to performing both steps.) Customers who have been wrongly accused can appeal the mitigation step, though submitting an appeal costs $35.

The mitigation measures are left up to ISPs, who have been largely mum on the Copyright Alert System so far. Only Verizon has mentioned the program on its website, and it says that while it won't terminate the service of users who received six strikes, it will reduce access speed to something "a little faster than typical dial-up speed" for two to three days. Dara Kerr, writing for CNET, notes that termination of service isn't part of the "mitigation" step, although the other four ISPs haven't made clear statements to that effect yet. And although the program withholds personal information from content owners, it doesn't shield users from legal action -- meaning you could still be sued for downloading copyrighted material.

The Copyright Alert System has been planned since 2011 and was supposed to take effect at the end of 2012, but a series of hurdles -- including Hurricane Sandy -- delayed its implementation until this week.

What's your take on this system? Does it seem like a fair way for content owners to protect their copyrights, or does the alert system punish downloaders too harshly? Let us know in the comments section below.

For more tech news, follow Jeff on Twitter: @jeffwardbailey.

Read entire post | Comments