Oct 14
43Folders has some great ideas on how to use a camera in your cell phone in useful ways:
- Remember where you parked - In a parking lot or garage, snap a photo of the section where you’ve parked. If you’re parked on the street in a strange neighborhood, grab a picture of an address, a landmark, or of the signs for the cross street.
- “Wishlist” items you might want to buy later - If you’re out and about and happen to see a CD, book, or other consumable you might want to pick up later on, snap a photo of the item’s barcode. When you get home you can look the item up on Amazon or Froogle.com and find the best price, or just add it to your canonical online wishlist.
- Show people where you’ve put things - If you’ve moved the mayonnaise jar with little Tyler’s college money or relocated the good scissors to your work bench, snap a photo and mail it to your housemates.
- Document your fender bender - If you get hit by another car (and once you’re safely off the road), take a few fast photos of the damage as well as the other driver’s tag and operator’s license.
- Record the hours of a new store - New dry cleaner or Thai restaurant you want to try? Grab a photo of the hours.
- Capture inspiring design - See a poster, interior, or typeface you particularly like? Grab a snapshot and use it for later inspiration, research, or as part of a mood board.
- Hunt for houses and apartments - If you’re looking at potential apartments or a new house, get photos of the kitchen, the bedrooms—even the view from out of some windows.
- Doublecheck your shopping selection - Can’t remember whether you were supposed to pick up 5 10-penny nails or 10 5-penny nails? Send a photo to the one who sent you on the errand, and have them approve your purchase by return call or IM.
- Document your haircut - Snap a few photos of a haircut that turned out well. Get the front, the sides, and the back, and make sure to note the name of the operator. Ask them to describe how to ask for this haircut again, and type it up wherever you’re storing the photo, online or otherwise.
- Carry your To-do list - If you’re traveling particularly light one day and just have a couple things to remember while you’re out, jot the tasks, phone numbers, or what have you on a sheet of paper, photograph it, and you’re done.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Sep 14
Perverts beware. There was a recent story about a guy on the New York subway caught in the act of exposing himself with the aid of modern technology:
The NYPD have arrested a guy for exposing himself on the subway. The woman he flashed took a cameraphone picture and posted it to Flickr, and then it got picked up by the New York Daily News. Not long after, the police identified and arrested the man.
Popularity: 2% [?]
May 13
The hardest part about being a couch potato is that sometimes you actually have to leave the house. What can you do? Get a life? That is no longer necessary as Verizon has rolled out V CAST . V CAST lets cell phone users watch TV on their cell phone. The service costs $15 a month and you have to live in one of 30 major metro areas in the U.S.
BusinessWeek reports :
For a new service, V CAST offers impressive content. Users can stream minutes-long news reports from NBC and CNN, sports highlights from ESPNews and Fox, stock market updates, city-specific weather reports, movie trailers, even short clips from the previous night’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Comedy Central. One note of caution, though: Getting these goodies isn’t as simple as turning on the tube. It takes 30 to 90 seconds to summon a clip — a considerable amount of time given that most videos last only a minute or two.
Is it big screen TV? No. Is it Tivo? No. But it should be able to help you continue to avoid interacting with real people.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Feb 24
According to PC World Samsung has a new Phone Senses 3-D Movements. Why you say?
Samsung Electronics has developed a cell phone that can sense movement in three dimensions and respond to those movements by performing actions such as dialing numbers or ending a call, the company says.
The SCH-S310’s motion sensing system allows users to, for example, draw a number three in the air to dial a three, says Samsung. Shaking the phone twice will end a call or delete a message. Other movement functions programmed into the handset include a sharp move to the right or left to tell the built-in MP3 music player to skip forward or back a track, while drawing a “O” or “X” in the air makes the phone say “Yes” or “No” out loud, the company says.
A couple of games for Vodaphone’s Sharp V603SH handset rely on motion sensing. The first, House of the Dead Mobile, is a zombie shoot-’em-up game from Sega. The screen shows the game scenario from the character’s point of view, and as the player turns around with the phone, so does the character in the game. In Full Swing Golf from Taito, the player holds the phone as if it were a golf club and swings it to hit the ball on the screen. A warning tone before each shot reminds the user to avoid hitting people when swinging the phone.
The Pantech handset comes with a fishing game that requires the player to swing the handset like a fishing rod, plus a racing game in which the handset becomes the steering wheel.
LG Electronics’ phone, which resembles a portable gaming device, includes a skiing game that uses motion sensing.
But this technology isn’t limited to games: For example, users can make calls on the Samsung phone by drawing the numbers in the air with the handset, or they can end a call by shaking the phone twice. Other functions include a sharp move to the right or left to tell the built-in MP3 player to skip forward or back a track. Vodafone’s Sharp V603SH can be programmed to perform similar functions when it is moved.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Feb 07
Engadget has an article(from a UK tabloid - The Sun) about:
a guy in Wales who is so addicted to text messaging that he’s started doing it in his sleep, even sending a text message to one of his friends while he was having a nightmare that read “Help, I’m in trouble, someone’s chasing me.”
OK, put the cell phone down and slowly back away…
Popularity: 2% [?]
