Semiconducted

Interactive public art meets childhood toy

File 2009’s SMSslingshot under “fun stuff that gets people interacting with each other”.  Interesting project, although for texting, I would have gone with a QWERTY keyboard over an old school triple-click key pad.  Or better yet, use the familiar phone in your pocket to “load” the sligshot.  This reminds me of a hybrid of Graffiti Research Lab’s projection work and Jury Hahn’s Megaphone project that came out of NYU’s Interactive Telecommunication Program (ITP) in 2007.  Either way, it’s fun stuff that gets people to be creative in a social setting.

SMS Slingshot

Graffiti Research Lab LASER Tag

Using Symbolic Links to Sync System Files

This is a short tutorial on using symbolic links to sync files that live outside of your Dropbox or other sync folder. 

I use this to synchronize my Omnigraffle stencils and Adobe templates across multiple Macs.  Although untested, this may also be used to get around the restriction that Live Mesh imposes on not allowing items within system folders to be synced (e.g. Library on Mac or Application Support on Windows).

What is a Symbolic Link?
They are basically the UNIX equivalent to an “Alias” to a file on a Mac or a “Shortcut” in Windows.

Why do I care?
Because they are actually more powerful and can be used to do some nifty tricks.  Symbolic links can point directly to the actual file from multiple locations.  An alias or shortcut is a file in itself, and in some ways is treated like any other file.  If you were to synchronize an alias, the shortcut reference file is copied over, not the file it points to.  So we can use symbolic links to synchronize preferences or system files that live outside of your Dropbox, Live Mesh, or specific backup folder. 

source:
http://www.pxc.me.uk/misc/dropbox_mac_use.html#symboliclinker

The easy way – install this finder applescript
http://seiryu.home.comcast.net/~seiryu/symboliclinker.html
The readme file explains how to install, as there are a couple ways to do it depending on which Mac OS you are using.

And for the technical, a full-on terminal method can be found here:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2001110610290643

Also see this Dropbox-related post:
Sync your files across multiple computers seamlessly

Sync your files across multiple computers seamlessly

For many years I have emailed files to myself, copied them to thumb drives, and cobbled together my own FTP syncing scripts.  All very complicated and error prone.  Enter 3rd-party syncing services – easy as pie to use, magically work in the background, and they come in pretty colors. There are a ton out there, but here are a couple of the better options.

Dropbox:
Free for 2GB of storage space.

Beautiful interface, easy to use, cross platform, including an iPhone app and mobile site.
The iphone app is handy for viewing PDFs, but currently only offline syncs the list of documents, not the actual content.
Sharing is easy, but limited to options.  In my case, I want access to other people’s folders ONLY on the website.  I don’t want every change they make to automatically sync to me all the time, eating up resources.

Live Mesh:
Free for 5GB of storage space

As of this review, still in beta.  It provides the ability to sync ANY existing folder you wish, provided it is not a system folder (anything within the Library folder on Mac OSX).
The Live Mesh web interface allows for a lot of flexibility in what you sync to which device.  At the time of my review, the mobile app was not yet available.

For either the above software solutions, you can sync items or folders outside the main sync folders using symbolic links.  I use it to sync my Omnigrafffle stencils and templates across computers.

Ultimately I’ve continued to use Dropbox and have been extremely happy with it.  If you use this referral code, we both get an extra 250MB storage.

Push email is a harbinger of the productivity apocalypse of 2012

OK, so maybe it isn’t REALLY the end of the world. But the following article echoes the sentiment that the number and speed of modern communication channels reduce focus and enable procrastination. 

Researchers at Loughborough University found that it took an average of 64 seconds for a person to recover their train of thought after interruption by email: those who check their email every five minutes waste 8.5 hours a week in this way. “There is no doubt that people use it as an avoidance tactic,” says Yoram Kalman, a post-doctoral researcher in online communication at the Open University of Israel. “The modern office worker works for an average of three minutes before an interruption occurs.”

According to the psychiatrist Edward Hallowell, the stress of trying to process information as rapidly as it arrives is reducing us to quivering wrecks of indecision and demoralisation. As email becomes easier and quicker to use, we are finding it increasingly difficult to sift the relevant information.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/nov/01/email-facebook

Complete iPhone 3GS voice control command set

As of this date of this posting, here is the full list of the iPhone 3GS Voice Control commands available.  Hopefully as this is adopted, they will roll out more – like finding a contact’s info or initiating an email by speaking the name.

Start Voice Control:
Press and hold the Home button or your headset middle button until the Voice Control screen appears and you hear a beep. 

Cancel Voice Control:
Tap the cancel button on the screen or say “cancel” to close Voice Control.

Call someone in your contacts:
   * call + [name of the person or phone number]
   * dial + [name of the person or phone number]

 If the person has more than one phone number, add:
   * home
   * mobile
   * work
   * other

Make a correction:
   * no
   * nope
   * not that
   * not that one
   * wrong

Music playback:
   * play
   * play music
   * play + album + [name]
   * play + artist + [name]
   * play + playlist + [name] 
   * pause
   * pause music
   * next song
   * previous song
   * shuffle

Music Info:
   * what’s playing
   * what song is this
   * who is this song by
   * who sings this song

Use Genius to play similar songs:
   * Genius
   * play more like this
   * play more songs like this

For best results:
Speak clearly, naturally (like you are making a phone call), pausing slightly so each word is distinct.  Use only iPhone commands and full names or numbers.

Reason’s why Android is poised to overthrow the iPhone

One reason: Great apps that can monkey with gut level settings!  Yes, iPhone jailbreaking enables that sort of thing, but for Android, these apps are encouraged.

                 
                   
                 

http://code.google.com/android/adc/gallery_winners.html

And not being tied to AT&T sure helps, considering they came in DEAD LAST in customer satisfaction in 17 major cities according to:
http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20091201/att-ranked-last-in-consumer-reports-best-cell-phone-service-survey/

Time, Inc.’s tablet digital magazine concept

Tablet, digital magazine, news reader, call it what you will.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/12/02/video-time-tablet-magazine/

Jibbigo real-time translator iPhone app

The Babelfish is here and it only costs $24!  Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA have created an iPhone 3GS app that can convert spoken English to Spanish and back in (almost) real-time.  It has a vocabulary of around 40,000 words and also provides written text translation, which is editable and adaptable.  This feels very much like the beginning of some greatness.

http://jibbigo.com/

Several programs to turn your iPhone into a thumbdrive.

The following is a quick review of several iPhone apps and/or desktop software that use the extra space on your iPhone as a thumbdrive.

My task – to transfer a large amount of data from one work Mac to a PC at home.  FTP was out of the question as that would have taken days.  And instead of lugging the laptop back and forth, I thought I’d look into using the 10GB of free space on my iPhone.

Airsharing

(free iPhone app)
http://avatron.com/apps/
No install on any of your computers, it turns your iPhone into a file server where you can wirelessly access it from any browser or network share.  Easy to use, easy to setup.  Nice interface.  Airsharing has the ability to disable sleep mode, which otherwise might kill your transfer, so that’s a plus.  I found this great for small files or occasional usage, but unsuitable for transferring gigabytes.  I tried to copy a few massive files and it took for-freaking-ever.  Also, I had many failed transfers with the larger files.  Airsharing must also be running the entire time, so no switching apps while your transfers are running.  The pro version can send files to a printer, email files, and unzip archives too.

But still I had so many problems with the free version, I looked into the following other options.

FileAid v1.3

(free iPhone app)
http://www.digidna.net/fileaid/
Like Airsharing, it creates a wireless file server on your iPhone.  It also allows you to preview or play many file types, including PDFs, zip files, and spreadsheets.  See the full list.  One huge bonus is that it uses the same file structure as their other product DiskAid, so they work well together.

DiskAid

(Mac and PC versions, free 15 day trial, $9.90 for a license)
http://www.digidna.net/diskaid/
PC and Mac software, PC requires installation, Mac, the usual drag to applications.
Diskaid allows direct USB connection to the iPhone, making transfers MUCH faster and more reliable.  The interface could use some work, but it is functional.  And for $10, you can’t go wrong if you use this regularly.  Of course, you could also try the free FileAid until you feel you really need the faster connection.  With these desktop installs, there is nothing to install anything on the iPhone, so it theoretically could work across many different phones in the same manner (I did not test this).

One desired feature is to be able to select more than one file within a folder without selecting all files (the folder itself).  The user interface could definitely use some work, but it does the job nicely.  In the end, this was the best choice for my purposes.

While I was at it, I also tried the others I had downloaded…

iPhoneExplorer v116

(free Mac and PC versions)
http://www.iphone-explorer.com/
This program allows you to look at your phone’s file structure.  That seemed to be about it, although maybe I was missing something.  I could not  find a way to transfer files or even find the files inside of Airsharing or DiskAid.  It very well could be possible, but it wasn’t obvious to me.  That said, the UI could be more helpful.

i-FunBox

(free PC version)
http://www.i-funbox.com/
PC only, so it didn’t make the cut.  It seems to be a USB file browser, allowing access to all system files, and also provides the ability to transfer files to and fro.  UI-wise, this looks a little more rough around the edges.

Volkswagen’s socially responsible initiative

Volkswagen has sponsored some fun interactive public art projects, with a socially responsible angle.  They call it The Fun Theory.  It states that if you make the mundane things fun, people will be more apt to do it – like if the stairs make music, people will take them over the escalator or if the garbage can makes sound, people will be drawn into putting their garbage into it.  It plays on the altered expectations and novelty of the experience.  It’s very cute and fun, even if the rationale is a bit flawed.  If you made every staircase like this, the novelty would quickly wear off to the point of becoming annoying; perhaps even to the point of being socially awkward to take the loud stairs over the quiet escalator.  But of course this is not research – it is PR, brand advertising, and playful art.  Good work on a well executed idea, even if it speaks to a dystopian future where every object is augmented with a cartoon soundtrack…

Piano Staircase

The World’s Deepest Bin

And go here for updates on the latest one that is still in progress, the
Empty Bottle Arcade
http://www.rolighetsteorin.se/en/

PhotoSketch transforms stick-figure drawings into photographs

Wow, this is cool.  Combining a multitude of technologies, this group of Chinese students has put together one of the coolest ideas in a long time.  The utility is somewhat vague although I can see this useful for creating storyboards.  Either way, the technology is amazing.  I am with Mashable on this one = mind blown.

PhotoSketch, which transforms basic stick-figure drawings in to a photograph, has been described by technology website Mashable as “mind blowing”.

The program, which has been built by five Chinese students at Tsinghua University and the National University of Singapore, uses a vast library of images to turn a basic sketch in to a photograph. A website that allows people to experiment with the software has crashed under the volume of traffic.

In one example of the technology, a basic sketch, showing the rudimentary outlines of some boats, seagulls and a kissing bride and groom, is transformed in to a beautiful image showing an embracing couple against a sunset backdrop. In another, a diagram of a man throwing a Frisbee, and a dog leaping to catch it, is turned into an action-packed picture.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/6265876/PhotoSketch-picture-software-wins-plaudits.html

Dropbox comes to the iphone app store

Dropbox now has an iphone app!

http://www.macrumors.com/iphone/2009/09/29/dropbox-for-iphone-hits-the-app-store/

Yes, I am easily excited, but seriously I love this service enough to want more.  Use this referral link and we both get an extra 250MB of space https://www.getdropbox.com/referrals/NTE1MTMxMDM5

Microsoft research lab mice

Microsoft labbing it up with some new multitouch takes on the old computer mouse.  What’s going to win in the future?  Probably not a mouse at all, but the videos are still fun to watch.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/05/microsoft-research-shows-off-multitouch-mouse-prototypes/

Citizen journalism gets a new pen

Little Brother is watching…
Everywhere…
Live…
for iPhone…

http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/21/qik-for-iphone-3gs-update-removes-wifi-only-restriction-3g-s/

Microsoft tablet early demo may scoop Apple

Is MS beating Apple to the punch here?  A Kindle-killer and iTablet scoop in one machine!  Not bad, if the interaction and platform can hold up to actual usage.  This demo seems like an early proof-of-concept, but perhaps they are indeed getting close to a surprise release.  A surprise release from Microsoft would in itself be quite the surprise.

Courier is a real device, and we’ve heard that it’s in the “late
prototype” stage of development. It’s not a tablet, it’s a booklet. The
dual 7-inch (or so) screens are multitouch, and designed for writing,
flicking and drawing with a stylus, in addition to fingers. They’re
connected by a hinge that holds a single iPhone-esque home button.
Statuses, like wireless signal and battery life, are displayed along
the rim of one of the screens. On the back cover is a camera, and it
might charge through an inductive pad, like the Palm Touchstone
charging dock for Pre.

http://gizmodo.com/5365299/courier-first-details-of-microsofts-secret-tablet

Nokia gives the netbook a go

Nokia unveiled their hybrid netbook today.  Smartphone + laptop = Apptop?  It will be interesting to see how all the interactions coalesce between the OS, Ovi Gadgets, and all your other mobile devices. Will they play nicely? Unlike most netbooks, this is running a full-blown Windows 7 OS and has a beefier hardware setup (higher res screen, 3G mobile connectivity, A-GPS, HDMI, camera).

Now it begs the question, can you use it to make phone calls?

10 Reasons Apple May Reject Your iPhone Application Submission

Apparently even the most experienced developers can get snagged by some of the nuances around the Apple Application Approval Committee (AAAC!):

1. Cannot duplicate the functionality of a built-in app
2. Cannot collect personal data without permission
3. Must notify the user on internet connection failures
4. Cannot facilitate a checkout, transaction, or purchase
5. Unfiltered internet access must be rated 17+
6. Avoid public figures and celebrities
7. Free/Lite version can’t up-sell (tricky)
8. Cannot go anywhere near Apple’s trademarks
9. Cannot mention prices in Description
10. No contests, giveaways, or charity donations

Detailed explanation of the above found here:
http://appreview.tumblr.com/

And some more resources:
http://www.mobileorchard.com/avoiding-iphone-app-rejection-from-apple/
http://www.mobileorchard.com/avoiding-iphone-app-rejection-part-2/

Great Motion Graphics Projection

Super cool site-specific projection that really takes advantage of the ‘canvas’ of the Hamburg Kunsthalle building.

555 KUBIK | facade projection | from urbanscreen on Vimeo.

Push is the new Pull

Push based data may be getting traction for small sensors, appliances, and other devices.  IBM celebrates 10 years of their MQTT protocol’s birth and launched the site http://asmarterplanet.com/ to promote the adoption of sensor networks that comprise “The Internet of Things“.

As the BBC explained recently, MQTT (which stands for Message Queuing Telemetry Transport) is “a platform-agnostic system which can connect almost any networked object to the wider world.” MQTT is used as a messaging protocol for sensor and actuator solutions – for example in the house that twitters, which we covered earlier this week.

The topic of MQTT came up in my conversation with Andy Stanford-Clark this week, when I asked him for his thoughts on Pachube – an open source Internet of Things platform that we have featured a couple of times on ReadWriteWeb.

Stanford-Clark told me that Pachube is “very cool, as far as it goes.” But he said that it hasn’t got “true push.” To get your data out of Pachube, Stanford-Clark explained, you have to poll it (i.e. it’s a pull system, rather than push). So in order to get real-time data, you’d need to be constantly polling Pachube. A better way to do it, according to Stanford-Clark, is have data pushed to you. This is what MQTT enables.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/mqtt_poised_for_big_growth.php

IDEO’s Human Centered Design Kit

Ideo has developed a toolkit for HCD for “communities of need” (read: 3rd world or impoverished populations).  Pretty cool stuff that is an applicable methodology for designing solutions to problems in any context.

Human-Centered Design is a process used for decades to create new solutions for companies and organizations. Human-Centered Design can help you enhance the lives of people. This process has been specially-adapted for organizations like yours that work with people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Human-Centered Design (HCD) will help you hear people’s needs in new ways, create innovative solutions to meet these needs, and deliver solutions with financial sustainability in mind.

The nicely designed intro to the whole thing: Intro Guide.pdf

How to perform the field research:  The “Hear Guide“, the companion Field Guide, and the Aspirations Cards
(60 stock photographs / flash cards).

The Create Guide to organize your research into solutions

The Deliver guide to make the implementation plan and generate deliverables.

from:
http://www.ideo.com/work/item/human-centered-design-toolkit/

Galápagos syndrome affects Japanese cellphone market

Interesting history of why Japanese cell phone makers have not sold their super-advanced phones outside of Japan.  It is largely due to technical incompatibility as they have adopted the ‘walled garden’ approach to networks.

Indeed, Japanese makers thought they had positioned themselves to dominate the age of digital data. But Japanese cellphone makers were a little too clever. The industry turned increasingly inward. In the 1990s, they set a standard for the second-generation network that was rejected everywhere else. Carriers created fenced-in Web services, like i-Mode. Those mobile Web universes fostered huge e-commerce and content markets within Japan, but they have also increased the country’s isolation from the global market.

Then Japan quickly adopted a third-generation standard in 2001. The rest of the world dallied, essentially making Japanese phones too advanced for most markets.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/20/technology/20cell.html?th&emc=th

The Mobile Landscape in Japan

Great article that talks not just about the technology, but the motivations and cultural trends of techno-savvy Japanese mobile users.

Nico Nico Douga (smile video) has never had the spontaneous, guy-with-a-webcam, videoblog style that sparked YouTube’s global success. Instead, most videos are taken from other media, uploaded through content partnerships, or are mash-ups and original content created by users (but not usually starring users). What’s interesting is that the video content is less important than how it’s presented. Nico Nico Douga’s creative base shines in its unique commenting system, which is a tool for user creation in its own right.

Using an overlay, comments made on Nico Nico Douga are placed on the video timeline by users and literally race across the screen from right to left as the video plays beneath. This allows users to do useful things like writing subtitles, but also communicate with one another asynchronously and enhance the videos by adding written content that all can see. To someone unaccustomed to this kind of communication it seems chaotic and random, but the comments are actually improving the videos by adding another layer of entertainment and interaction.

Below is an animation created entirely on a mobile phone:

http://www.receiver.vodafone.com/mobile-creation-–-the-japanese-way

Future Ramifications of the iPhone 3.0 / 3GS (and last year’s G1 / Android)

The real-time use of the camera, GPS, and directional compass is poised to provide a whole new set of sensors that can be used to provide additional information or points of upsell in almost every context.  I also see a greater onslaught of serious industry-specialized tools coming down the pipe…

  

Augmented reality is already here for Android devices, witht he iphone soon to follow:
http://thenextweb.com/2009/06/17/amazing-mobile-app-lets-world-through-online-eyes/

Here is a summary of a good posting outlining a few new iphone apps with features that may be game changers in the near future and why.
http://mashable.com/2009/06/08/iphone-30-apps/

Data Visualization of Apple App Store Activity.

Below is a great data visualization of App Store activity from the recent Apple Worldwide Developer’s Conference.

At Apple’s recent WWDC developer conference, 20,000 of the most popular iPhone apps were showcased on a pulsating wall of 30 Cinema Displays. Whenever someone downloaded a particular app, its icon pulsed light outwards creating a mesmerising display.

All the technical background and more pics can be found at AppleInsider

from: http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2009/june/apple-hyperwall

Controller-free Gaming for XBox 360

Interface-free interface!  Facial recognition to log in, body position and motion tracking to play.  You are the controller.  I can see the beginnings of this being simplified games, but the future ramifications are fantastic.    Making this work well under various lighting conditions, environments, and clothing choices would be a major challenge as well.  The image below is a photo from Gizmodo’s coverage of the presentation.

from:
http://live.gizmodo.com/page/3/

And apparently Sony was ahead of the game on this one with their previously demoed Eye Toy for PlayStation 3:

Can’t wait to see how these develop.