The UK's Intent Media plans to launch later this year a new, 10,000-circ magazine called Mobile Entertainment. The magazine will cover games, music, ring tones, video, picture messaging applications, adult, personalization and lifestyle issues. The Executive Editor and Editor will be Tim Green and Stuart O'Brien, respectively.
Berlin University of Technology and Microsoft Research Cambridge demonstrated the Visual Robot Development Kit (VRDK), "a graphical programming language that makes the development of robotic applications easy enough to teach in school" at the Microsoft Research and Innovation Fair in Brussels, Belgium. The VRDK is optimized for creating software that enables you to control your robot using your smart phone.
McDonald's Centralizing Drive-Up Window Order Taking
McDonald's is reportedly centralizing some drive-up window order taking in a Colorado Springs call center. When you place your order at some McDonald's drive-up windows, the person you're talking to may be in another state (assuming you're not in Colorado). Your order is then sent to a computer screen in the restaurant you're buying from. A hidden camera snaps a digital picture of you so the minimum-wage teenager who hands over your burger can match your face with your order. Instant Prediction: Offshoring drive-up window order taking to India will be tested within the year. Snide media commentators will label them "Bangalore Burgers." You heard it here first, folks!
P2P file sharing networks like KaZaA aren't just for intellectual property thieves. Now they're for intellectual content swapping. Professors and researchers are looking into the services as a way to share academic documents. A network in development called LionShare may become the KaZaA of PhD set. (Alternatively, they could just use KaZaA...)
Korean car maker Kia plans to introduce a prototype of its new fuel cell SUV at the Paris Motor Show this week. The Sportage FCEV (code-named FKM), should top out at over 93 mph and go 180 miles on a single tank of hydrogen. They're shooting for a 2010 release. Even though the vehicle looks similar to the fuel cell SUV prototype recently introduced by Kia's parent company, Hundai, the vehicles are reportedly being developed separately. And despite what this photo suggests, the car won't come standard with pimped out hydraulics.
Audio eBook pusher Audible.com and Sprint have launched a new partnership that provides audio books, newspapers and magazines to some Sprint customers. Customers using Sprint PCS Vision "Smart Devices" -- which includes the Samsung SP-i600 -- will be given access to Audible.com content and software to play it on the phones. In other news, mobile phone battery makers' stocks are soaring unexpectedly.
Yoshida Seisakusho KK, a Japanese company that makes dentist gadgets, has created a dentist chair with a built-in CD stereo and bone-conduction headrest. The victim, er, patient can listen to tunes through the vibration of his skull by the headrest.
I told you July 15 about the awesome AeroSphere SA-60, a giant ball that flies, floats and is controlled by a crew inside the balloon. The company that makes the balloon today announced a deal with Boeing that enables the SA-60 to be remote-controlled from anywhere in the world. Whoo-hoo! I want one!
Concord Camera plans to introduce a new Wi-Fi-capable digital camera at Photokina next week in Cologne, Germany. The prototype they'll demonstrate features a 2" x 2" gadget that plugs into a PC's USB drive, and enables the wireless transfer of photos between the itself and the camera.
Researchers Building Wireless Underwater Communications System With Lasers
Researchers at Canada's Laurentian University are developing a wireless data system using laser beams for environments like deep water, deep space and deep underground during mining operations. Unfortunately, the project doesn't have deep pockets. The $600,000 Underwater Tele-robotic Optical Communication Project is funded by Ontario Centres of Excellence and the Industry Canada agency FedNor, plus a bevy of mining companies. The most immediate application is underwater. Researchers plan to build a mini-submarine that houses a computer, communications gear and a fricken laser beam on its fricken head that would communicate with the surface with flashes of laser light.
Don't Try This At Home: The Gramophone Home Entertainment System
First time case modder Tony Greenberg transformed his antique gramophone into a Tivo-like HDTV home entertainment system - no cranking required. He managed to squeeze all the components - a 250 gigabyte hard drive, HDTV video card, DVD-recordable disk drive, Epia MII 10000 motherboard as well as the power supply, cables and fans required to run such a monster - into the tiny, emptied wooden box of his gramophone.
