Archive for the ‘apple’ Category

iPhone 3g pWned (for the avg. user) !

In case you couldn’t hold on to your frickin’ hat for a few weeks, the iphone-dev team, in true ninja fashion must I add, has released a classy tool for the power user. Yup, the new iPhone is officially "outta jail." We expect that the majority of ninjas are power users, in case you were confused by the title. Carry on, childr3n!

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Posted: July 21st, 2008
at 2:49pm by Black Ock


Categories: apple,cell phones,9th dan,competitions

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iWood

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Want to protect your iPhone [or iPod touch/classic], but stay fly? Then cop one of these siiick wood cases from Miniot, creator of the iWood. Unlike some other ill wooden cases for your iFamily of gadgetry, iWood‘s design gives you protection that looks less like an extra case and more like a sleek wooden skin.

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::www.miniot.com::

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Posted: July 21st, 2008
at 12:26pm by orangemenace


Categories: apple,cell phones,gear,design

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2057 The World - Documentary

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7582986795752940587

Well, sort of a documentary anyway.

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Posted: June 30th, 2008
at 9:20am by Black Ock


Categories: apple,robots,documentary

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Sorry Fellas - You’ve been Rondo’d

Commercials, presented without program interruption.

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For all of you who aren’t from around Boston and haven’t seen the three commercials, here you have it. If you don’t know what it’s referring to, you’ve obviously been Rondo’d. Obviously.

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Posted: June 23rd, 2008
at 10:57am by Black Ock


Categories: youtube,celebrity,apple,fo' real?,9th dan

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Omnia, competition for iPhone

Samsung Electronics South Korea released on early Monday preview details on the companya€™s new smartphone, before the mania of Applea€™s Worldwide Developers Conference begins in California. The Samsung Omnia (SGH-i900) is similar in looks and function to the Samsung Instinct (SPH-M800), but with a few more bells and whistles. For starters, it sounds like it has a very promising camera. With five megapixels and anti-shake technology, this may be the first camera on a phone that produces pictures you would actual think of printing, not just posting to Facebook. This is an improvement over the 2-megapixel cameras on both the first-generation iPhone and on the Samsung Instinct.

The touch-screen smartphone, which runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 and features Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Opera 9.5 as its Web browser, will also have Wi-Fi. Thata€™s something the Instinct also lacks. Like the Instinct, the Omnia has visual voice mail, 3G capability, Bluetooth, an FM radio, and GPS functionality. The smartphone, of course, also doubles as a music player and, with 16GB, will be able to hold up to 4,000 songs or 100 minutes of video, according to Samsung. More details on the smartphonea€™s specs will follow when the Omnia (SGH-i900) is officially unveiled on June 17 at Communicasia, the 2008 Singapore Expo. The Omnia (SGH-i900) will become available in Southeast Asia first and then be launched to other markets over the second half of 2008, according to Samsung.

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Posted: June 11th, 2008
at 7:29pm by Koookiecrumbles


Categories: apple,cell phones

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The Ninja Gap

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David Weinberger somehow manages to find time to write books, write thoughtful blog posts, AND produce a periodic newsletter - Journal of the Hyperlinked Organization - thata€™s one of he best reads on the a€net. Ia€™m deeply flattered that the current issue features Davida€™s thoughts on some of the topics Ia€™m obsessed with: media attention, caring, international understanding. More generously, he gives me the chance to react to his essay within the essaya€¦

Davida€™s generosity isna€™t the main reason Ia€™m linking to his piece - ita€™s that hea€™s broken some important theoretical ground with his important new concept in media criticism: The Ninja Gap. It takes a moment or two to explain - bear with me.

Almost anyone whoa€™s heard me give a public talk has heard me observe that Japan and Nigeria have roughly the same populations, but vastly different media representation: youa€™re roughly 8-12 times more likely to find an article focused on Japan in an American newspaper than an article on Nigeria. There are a lot of possible explanations for this phenomenon, from racism to comparative economic power. David offers a new one: Japana€™s got ninjas, and Nigeria doesna€™t.

Ita€™s a brilliant observation because ita€™s funny, true and highly relevant to conversations about media attention. Johan Galtung, in his seminal a€oeThe Structure of Foreign Newsa€oe, draws a persuasive metaphor between a radio receivera€™s ability to tune in one of many radio stations, and a listenera€™s likelihood to a€oereceivea€A a piece of news:

F4: The more meaningful the signal, the more probable that it will be recorded as worth listening to.

F5: The more consonant the signal is with the mental image of what one expects to find, the more probable that it will be recorded as worth listening to.

F7: The more a signal has been tuned in to the more likely it will continue to be tuned in to as worth listening to.

Context matters, Galtung argues. If wea€™ve got a mental image of Africa as a backwards and technically retrograde place, wea€™re likely to miss stories about innovation in mobile commerce (see the lead story in issue 407a€¦) or success in venture capital. Galtunga€™s fifth maxim is closely linked to the idea of cognitive dissonance - ita€™s uncomfortable to attempt to resolve new information that conflicts with existing perceptions, beliefs and behaviors.

Context doesna€™t just come from hard news - we all consume far more entertainment and advertising content than we consume of hard news. This information helps shape our views of these countries, and likely helps us unconsciously decide what sort of information to accept or reject. These perceptions construct something over time that might be thought of as a a€oenation branda€A - as the man who coined that term,marketer Simon Anholt, observed, a€oeEthiopia is well branded to receive aid, but poorly branded as a tourism destination.a€A

In this context, Japan is a place branded in many of our minds as a place thata€™s innovative, high-tech, and more than a little strange. Whether or not wea€™ve been to Japan, wea€™ve encountered anime, monster movies, martial arts flicks, SONY tva€™s and Toyota trucks. Whether or not our ideas about Japan are well-founded, reflect the reality on the ground, are rich in stereotypes, etc., wea€™ve got preconceptions about Japan. On some level, the fact that we know that a€oeJapan = Ninjasa€A means that wea€™ve got receptivity for a story about Japan that we might not have for Nigeria.

And so, Nigeria needs ninja. Or as David explains:

One reason we care about Japan more than Nigeria (generally) is that Japan has a cool culture. Wea€™ve heard about that culture because some Westerners wrote bestselling books about ninjas, and then Hollywood made ninja movies. Love them ninjas! Nigeria undoubtedly has something as cool as ninjas. Ok, something almost as cool as ninjas. If we had some blockblusters about the Nigerian equivalent of ninjas, wea€™d start to be interested Nigeria.

In other words, wea€™re more inclined to pay attention to Japan because wea€™ve got some context - a weird, non-representative context, for sure - while we have almost no context for stories about Nigeria. The context we do have for Nigeria - 419 scams - tends to be pretty corrosive, and may make us likelier to pick up only the stories that portray Nigeria as wildly corrupt and criminal.

Davida€™s observation leads him to some concrete advice for those of us trying to inspire xenophilia: write better: a€oeGood writing can make anything interesting. We will read the story about the Nigerian peddler and his neighborhood if there is a writer able to tell that story in a compelling way.a€A

Thata€™s harder than it sounds. But ita€™s also one of the best pieces of constructive advice Ia€™ve seen on cultivating xenophilia: tell good stories in a compelling way. And it wouldna€™t hurt to throw a ninja or two in there while youa€™re at it.

This post originally ran on Ethan’s excellent personal blog, My Heart’s in Accra.

via worldchanging

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MNP Geospatial : O’Reilly Where 2.0 2008 Conference

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Where to start and where to begin?

We would like to say happy trails to all of the attendees, speakers, and Brady Forrest, Conference Chair, for enabling a spectacular culmination of ideas and of course people.

I was happy to partake in most of the tutorials and listen amongst the speakers while experiencing the bounds of the various "heat" maps that were located throughout the conference quarters. Apparently by the end of the conference like-minds had been appointed none other than a grossly giddy quite title. [see the O’Reilly photo at the end of this leaf]

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In accordance with the final speaker of the assembly, Erik Hersman, it would be ignorant not to capstone anterior surprises: the activist mapping that was prevalent throughout caught the most of my attention. Eduardo Jezierski spoke passionately about the unique relationships of choice presented when definition arrives at the corner of life and death.

Are maps accessible enough for general consumption? George Demmy and TerraGo Technologies have solved this quandary by paralleling the PDF format with GIS.

MNP asks eight (8) questions concerning the future of the geospatial web

What kind of ramifications does the radius creep of related map stock pose for accurate data?

Are humans inherently familiar with maps?

How do people look for local information?

Are neighborhoods redundant or sequential in the quest to better understand city framework?

What is the proper form of a map?

How do we accurately report "data"?

What are movement signatures?

Which industries will be impacted the most by GIS?

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The most creative application of map wizardry? Bar none, Andrea Vaccari, team member of the NYTE project really pressed the steam for an instant boil of how paired maps are with the visual.

Chimp geniuses would have had fun with all of the possibilities that DIY drones set forth. That being said do NOT sleep on Light42.

How does this all relate to the real/city world approach to progressive geospatial understanding? According to the crowd theory of Paul Torrens, these value packages can only be evaluated within the boundaries of understanding the nuances of exception as well the opponents of acceptance.

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Who will rule the map world? A grand question that ESRI, Google Earth, and Virtual Earth would love to answer. If I was wearing the right hat, it would probably be a toss-up between the capabilities, the level of interaction, and the information….. until Where 2.0 2009!
Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted: June 2nd, 2008
at 8:01am by Koookiecrumbles


Categories: hood status,myninjaplease,computers,apple,web,cell phones,robots,weaponry,architecture,design,science,et cetera,diy,maps

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This Day in Apple History

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Amidst enormous media attention and hype, Apple Inc., maker of the MacIntosh personal computer, released the iPhone, an Internet-enabled mobile phone, on June 29. Gearheads camped out in front of Apple stores across the United States in order to be among the first to purchase the revolutionary device, which functions as a cell phone, camera, iPod, wireless Web browser and email terminal. Two models, with four and eight gigabytes of storage, were initially offered for $499 and $599, respectively. On September 10, 2007, just over two months after the sleek gadget arrived in stores, Apple announced it had sold its one-millionth iPhone. By comparison, it took two years for the company to hawk the same number of iPods. The iPhone made its European debut in November 2007 and was scheduled for release in Asia in 2008. history

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Posted: June 1st, 2008
at 8:08am by Koookiecrumbles


Categories: apple,cell phones

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Wild West Online: Gunfighter Open Beta Available

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Tenderfoot Games recently announced that an open beta version of Wild West Online: Gunfighter is now available. In the game players take the role of a gunslinger in the 19th Century American West. As gun fighters, players engage in duels, working their way across hundreds of towns and territories as they make a name for themselves.

Wild West Online: Gunfighter offers players the option to hone their skills against human or computer-based opponents. Although set in a rich, 3D environment Wild West Online: Gunfighter can be played right from a web browser, making it highly accessible.

"Wild West Online: Gunfighter is not just a quick-draw test of reflexes," says Ariel Butler, Executive Producer for Tenderfoot Games. "The outcome of gun battles hinges on players’ tactical decisions, actions, and their appetite for risk leading to the decisive moment." Butler added, "Wild West Online: Gunfighter is a game that’s easy to learn but has a lot of depth. Because each gunfight can be played out against an opponent in just a few minutes, it’s a great way to take a break from work, or lose yourself in an evening of absorbing action as you find yourself saying, ‘Just one more fight and then I’ll log off!'"

In Wild West Online: Gunfighter, players acquire items and skills that improve their gun fighting ability over time. The game is playable for free, with players having the option to purchase Golden Eagles, the game’s premium virtual currency, to purchase special items or speed the rate at which they acquire new skills and abilities. Players are also able to purchase items using Scrip, which is awarded to everyone for free play.

Wild West Online: Gunfighter is a key part of the Wild West Online multiplayer game experience, which, when released, will offer players an immersive and wide-ranging selection of period-authentic activities.

The open beta of Wild West Online: Gunfighter is available for Mac OS X 10.4 and higher, and is available at the website linked below.

Wild West Online: Gunfighter via insidemacgames

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Posted: May 28th, 2008
at 1:32am by Koookiecrumbles


Categories: apple,games,weaponry

Comments: 1 comment