Mobile advertising the shanghai way

Here I was, standing at shore of the Huangpu river, quietly overlooking Shanghai, when this came floating by.

Now, there are a lot of screens already all over the city: huge LED billboards on buildings, LCD screens in taxi's, plasma screen in subway stations, gyms and whatnot. You name it, they have a screen with advertising in or on it.

So when the whole city filled up, someone had the genius idea to throw a huge LED screen on a boat, put some ads on it and take it up and down the river. I guess this qualifies as "mobile" advertising. Or visual pollution if you happen to be in the mood to stroll by the water and take in the city views. Nothing is sacred any more.

Nokia Morphing

Ok, impressive. I didn't think they had it in them anymore (I've been a Sony-Ericsson convert for a number of years now), but the Nokia Morph concept looks very interesting.

From the press release: "Morph is a concept that demonstrates how future mobile devices might be stretchable and flexible, allowing the user to transform their mobile device into radically different shapes. It demonstrates the ultimate functionality that nanotechnology might be capable of delivering: flexible materials, transparent electronics and self-cleaning surfaces."


More here on nanotechnology and the future of mobile phones. Now to make it come true.

Will we be matched by machines by 2029?

Tagging on my previous post on "shift happens", ever serious site BBC Machines states that machines will achieve human-level artificial intelligence by 2029. And we'll be having nanobots inside our bodies.

Click here for the full article.

Shift happens

.. and it is still happening. At an ever increasing pace. Check out the presentation.

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"Predictions are that by 2013 a supercomputer will be built that exceeds the computational power of the human brain." I'm especially interested in this one; I should be around to witness it. Let's just hope that supercomputer doesn't turn out to be Skynet.


Here is the original "Did you know 2.0"

Read more at Shift Happens

*Update*
There is also a Shift Movie in the works. Watch it here.

Blogging over at the Mobile World Congress

I'm officially one of the bloggers at our Technology Blog over at the Mobile World Congress.

So go over there and see what we're thinking about the new technologies we see at the show.

Wired on the iPhone history

Wired's report on the history of the iPhone and its impact on the US carrier market.
Read more here

Wildbeaming

It's all about getting people to notice you, so here is a nice video of how they did it by wildbeaming, a form of beamvertising. Pretty cool. Limited to cities though.

Video also available on YouTube

Was the Matrix wrong?

Troed made an interesting comment yesterday: statistically there is a high probability that we are all avatars. Welcome to our self-chosen Matrix... Read all about the debate on the simulation argument website

The site is a debate about the possibility that we may be living in a simulation. A brief introduction is in order. The paper on the site argues that at least one of the following propositions is true:

i. It is possible that a civilization could create a computer simulation which contains individuals with artificial intelligence.

ii. Such a civilization would likely run many – say billions – of these simulations (just for fun; for research, etc.)

iii. A simulated individual inside the simulation wouldn’t know that it’s inside a simulation – it’s just going about its daily business in what it considers the “real world”.

Then the ultimate question is – if one accepts that points 1-2-3 are at least possible, which of the following is more likely?

a. We are the one civilization out there in the universe that will eventually develop the ability to run AI simulations? Or,

b. We are one of the billions of simulations that has run? (Remember point iii.)

While you're at it, take some time to read the simulated reality wiki.

I did get a funny feeling when reading Troeds post on the Matrix ... I don't think I would want to spend my life in a pod, no matter how good the reality. I think I'd end up taking the red pill. But then again ... how would I know? (Remember point iii.)

WiFi Positioning systems

Today I came across Skyhook's Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS). It' s a "location platform" that uses the native 802.11 radio in your PC (or even your smartphone) to deliver accurate positioning.

After installing the Loki plugin from the loki.com site (actually a product of Skyhook Wireless), my laptop is now able to find its position thanks to a triangulation using WiFi access points around me (provided that the region has been mapped by Skyhook), and I can use it for driving directions or finding businesses in my surroundings. No hardware needed, just a plugin for the browser. And ... it works indoors and outdoors, handy when you're sitting in an office or a hotel room and trying to find your way around.

Skyhook calls it a "metro-area positioning system" that leverages Wi-Fi instead of satellites or cell towers to deliver precise location data supporting the growing market for location-based services.

Halo 3 Science of Play

For all those (other) Halo fans out there, here is an insight on how Bungie Studios is working on the testing of Halo 3. Well worth a read.

We have come a long way. I wonder if they ever did game testing like this on PacMan?

Source: Wired

Polar Rose versus IDPS (IDentity Protection System)

Everybody puts their pictures online. Picasa, flickr, you just name them. But what if your friend puts a picture with YOU on it online? Cue the IDPS (IDentity Protection System), a sticker you wear that "tells" a camera taking a snapshot of you to blur out your face.
(Found at the YaHoo Design week.)

If it works, this may be a good thing, because at the other side of the spectrum, there is Polar Rose, a browser plugin that lets you discover who is in any public photo. They're in beta right now, but just imagine someone having a picture of you, and then using Polar Rose to find pictures of you all over the internet (even the ones you don't know of, and/or don't want others to know about).

What is on the bookshelf today

Thanks to iBert, I came across Shelfari, a virtual bookshelf where you can share with the world what you're reading, and at the same time see who else is reading the same books and what they think of it.

Here's my bookshelf.