How would you like to work for Facebook ?
If you answered yes then you are one of more than 250000 people that submitted a job application to Facebook !! It is only going to get tougher to get a job at Facebook with is consistently rated as one the most desirable place to work and lets not forget that Facebook is going to go public not too far in the future. As you can imagine , the process of getting a job at Facebook is not easy and only the very best candidates get hired but I hear if you already have a Facebook account then you are half way there !
Source: CNN
Sony Unveils the PSP2
After much anticipation and leaks galore, Sony has unveiled the PSP2. Except it's not called the PSP2. It's called the NGP, which stands for "Next Generation Portable," a code name for the project to which Sony is sticking for the time being.
Regardless of what they are calling it, the specifications are impressive. Sony claims that it will be as powerful as the PS3, and popular franchises such as Uncharted, Little BigPlanet, Resistance, and Killzone have all been named as titles that we can expect to see once the PSP2 hits the market. Sony has ditched their proprietary data storage technology, the Universal Media Disc (UMD), in favor of a newly developed form of flash memory, made specifically for the PSP2. This means that although the PSP2 is larger (7.1 inches wide) than most phones and handheld gaming platforms, it's surprisingly light.
Sony also boasts built-in WiFi and 3G capabilities for the PSP2, paving the way for social and location-based gaming. Social gaming relates to social networks, and will no doubt entail posting game achievements to Facebook, Twitter, and the like to brag to friends. Location-based gaming, Sony explains, will link players in the same areas into the same game, and pit them against each other, presumably head-to-head or in the highest-score-wins fashion. It will do this using a service called LiveArea, which in conjunction with a program called Near, will allow you to chat with nearby PSP2 users, as well as see what games they are playing.
To Sony's credit, they have not skimped out on any of the features that you would expect in any new handheld device, let alone one that is geared specifically towards portable gaming. It's new, larger, OLED screen is touch sensitive. Combine this with another touchpad on the back of the device, as well as dual analog sticks on the front and SIXAXIS motion controls, and you have incredibly powerful gaming potential. Now, add in front- and back-facing cameras, and 3G and WiFi technology, and you've got one serious handheld device, capable of much more than just "games"
For those of you who just want the meat and potatoes, here are the system specs, courtesy of Kotaku.com:
- CPU: ARM® Cortex™-A9 core (4 core)
- GPU: SGX543MP4+
- External Dimensions: Approx. 182.0 x 18.6 x 83.5mm (width x height x depth) (tentative, excludes largest projection)
- Rear touch pad: Multi touch pad (capacitive type)
- Cameras: Front camera, Rear camera
- Sound: Built-in stereo speakers, Built-in microphone
- Sensors: Six-axis motion sensing system (three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer), Three-axis electronic compass
- Location: Built-in GPS, Wi-Fi location service support
- Keys / Switches: PS button, Power button, Directional buttons (Up/Down/Right/Left), Action buttons (Triangle, Circle, Cross, Square), Shoulder buttons (Right/Left), Right stick, Left stick, START button, SELECT button, Volume buttons
- Wireless communications: Mobile network connectivity (3G), IEEE 802.11b/g/n (n = 1x1)(Wi-Fi) (Infrastructure mode/Ad-hoc mode), Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR （A2DP/AVRCP/HSP
Unfortunately, the PSP2/NGP/Whatever-Sony-Decides-to-Call-It won't go on sale until later this year. Which no doubt leaves many of us biting our nails and counting the days.
Sources: Kotaku 1, 2, 3, 4
Google Acquires Slide in Efforts to Create Worthy Competition with Facebook
Google has acquired a company called Slide today, in a move that they hope will help them find out the winning formula to succeed where they have failed in the past in social media.
After unsatisfactory results with Google Wave and Buzz, rumors have been circulating that Google is trying once again to come up with what the masses of the internet have dubbed the "Facebook Killer" of social media. Slide is the product of PayPal co-founder Max Levchin, and is responsible for such Facebook apps such as Super Poke and Top Friends.
According to Reuters, an unnamed source claims that Google paid $182 million for Slide, in addition to $46 million in employee retention benefits. Seems like a pretty-penny for a company with only 125 employees, but if the deal helps Google step up their game and challenge Facebook, it'll be worth every penny.
Source: Engadget, Reuters
Waterloo Labs Creates Face-Controller for NES
Ask yourself this question: would you rather control your games with a traditional controller, (like one of those boring Wiimotes) holding it in your hand and constantly weighing yourself down, or would you rather controller video games with your FACE?
If you prefer a regular old controller, suit yourself. But if you are interested in a controller that uses your face, then the guys at Waterloo Labs might be able to help you. They have developed a system of electrodes that measure movement in your eye to control any NES game they choose.
It uses electrodes that measure the changes in the electrical fields around your eyes that occur when you look in different directions. According to the video they used to explain it all, your eyeball actually has a positive and negative side, just like a battery. The back of your eye is more negative, while the front of your eye is more positive. So when you look all the way to the left or right, for instance, part of the negatively charged back of your eye becomes more visible, and changes the electrical field around your eyes slightly. The whole setup is called an EOG, or electro-oculogram.
Once the changes are measured, they are magnified and interpreted through the kind of custom made setup that electrical engineering students make, and plugged into the NES. The result: awesomeness.
Check out the video below to see the system in action!
Source: Engadget
Ultraviolet – A New Approach to Bringing Together All of Your Digital Video
Nowadays, watching tv shows and movies on your computer is becoming increasingly common. With the advent of high-quality, speedy streaming video sites (both legal and illegal), more and more people are turning to their computers, laptops, and mobile devices to catch the latest episode of their favorite show, or to watch the latest release on a night in. Whether it be through a smartphone, television, or even gaming consoles, more television is being watched by viewers on their own terms - when and where they want.
For the growing number of people that access their video through different channels like this, fragmentation can be a nuisance. By media fragmentation, I mean having a few movies queued up in your Netflix account via your PlayStation 3, the latest season of your favorite TV show on your laptop's hard drive, and that old HBO comedy special on your iPad.
This is exactly the sort of problem that a new service, called Ultraviolet, will be tackling. They plan on creating an online library which will offer all of a user's digital media in an online account, to be accessed whenever and wherever they need it. Featuring 58 companies, including Paramount Pictures, Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. and Sony Pictures Entertainment, Microsoft Corporation, Samsung Electronics, and NBC Universal and Comcast Corp. Notable companies that are missing from the lineup include Disney and Apple, who are working on and already have similar services in their product lines, respectively.
Once a customer has an account, all they will have to do will be to register the different devices they wish to be able to access their media on, and it'll be off to the races.
If successful, Ultraviolet plans on expanding their supported media to music, games, and even ebooks.
Source: Gizmodo, Businessweek
Japanese Billboards in Tokyo Can Now Scan Faces, Catering Their Displays Accordingly
Every day, we seem to be getting closer and closer to reaching the sort of accomplishments that were once only possible in movies. Today, we take another step closer, specifically towards Minority Report.
For those who may not remember or have not seen the film, one scene in Minority Report finds Tom Cruise walking through a shopping center, past holographic advertisements. The holograms feature people that stand there and greet you by name and refer to a past purchase you made, just by scanning your eyeball.
Although we haven't reached those extremes just yet, we have come pretty close. Tokyo now features a number of digital billboards that use cameras to recognize the faces of people walking by. While it can't identify them, it can tell their gender and accurately estimate their age, and change their display to fit the passerby.
People concerned about privacy need not be afraid, however, since the system will only save age and gender information, in an effort to gather data and analyze the demographic data for specific times during the day.
Source: Engadget, Physorg
RIAA and MPAA Propose Mandatory Spyware to Combat Copyright Infringement
In a plan submitted to the Office of Intellectual Property, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) have proposed that the government enforce copyright laws through dramatic measures. They are, frankly, so ridiculous that it is hard to believe that even a single point would be implemented, but it does not stop one from being amazed at their suggestion. They include:
- Among the proposed measures, the RIAA and MPAA proposed:
- Spyware that would constantly scan your computer for any sort of copyright-infringing data (and delete whatever it finds)
- Censorware that would interfere with even the transfer of illegal media
- Searches of personal media players, laptops and thumb-drives on all border crossings for illegally-obtained media
- Forcing other countries to adopt similar practices
- Enforcement of all of these points by government agencies (i.e. the Department of Homeland Security)
It's almost insulting to think that they would think that they could propose such gross invasions of privacy and personal property, but given the inner workings of the organizations:
... it's not that surprising.
Source: Gizmodo
PSP Go to be Relaunched… Somehow
In a recent interview with the Senior Vice President of Publisher Relations of Sony Computer Entertainment of America, Rob Dyer, Industry Gamers got an insight to what SCEA itself has to say about the lackluster sales on their PSP Go, and what they plan to do about it.
Apparently, the biggest problem that Sony has been trying to address with regards to their products is piracy. Widespread piracy made attracting bigger developers difficult to say the least, since few people want to invest time and money in a medium that is easily copied and distributed without any recognition. Piracy on PSP games had significantly affected game sales, and the PSP Go was supposed to address that.
With no UMD slot to accommodate regular PSP games, owners download games from the Playstation Store. This was meant to combine the ease of being able to get new games from the comfort of one's own home with legality of paying for them. That proved to be a hard selling point to get across to consumers, however.
“We wanted to find a way to give the consumers what they want... And we were hoping really to eliminate the piracy issue. Did the PSPgo confuse [consumers]? Yeah, I think the higher price point didn't help matters any either," said Dyer. At $249, the PSP Go was only slightly cheaper than a Playstation 3, let alone the original PSP. It remains to see whether a beefier version of the PSP Go will be launched, or if Sony plans on dropping the price, but a change is definitely in the works, sometime soon.
Source: Industry Gamers
Google Apologizes for Buzz Problems, Cites Poor Testing
In the week since Google Buzz's launch, there have been a few developments. And by developments, we mean a rather large amount of complaints about how terrible it is. Reports of inbox flooding and privacy concerns have been major issues, prompting a response from Google about all of the negative feedback and publicity that has arisen.
Buzz product manager Todd Jackson spoke with BBC News about the backlash from the release of the social media foray by Google. "We've been testing Buzz internally at Google for a while." said Jackson, "Of course, getting feedback from 20,000 Googlers isn't quite the same as letting Gmail users play with Buzz in the wild."
It certainly isn't. Privacy issues that concerned many people arose from an aspect of Buzz that set user accounts to automatically follow the people with which they communicate most through Gmail. This was simple to do, since Buzz operates from within Gmail (an attempt by Google to make it as easy as possible for users to try it out). However, what if you didn't want that sort of information public? Such a situation could pose serious problems for people like journalists, political activists, and individuals having secret, romantic affairs.
Google is now working very hard to try to come up with changes and fixes to the problems. After a company-wide meeting at their corporate headquarters in Mountain View, California, they came up with some potential changes. Among them were an improved preferences menu that can help users limit what sort of information pops up in their inbox, suggestions for people to follow, an "off" button, and even an entirely separate site for Buzz altogether. Changes that are planned for implementation will surface this week, after extensive testing and translation for the 53 languages that it serves.
Source: BBC News via Gizmodo
MusicDNA Challenges MP3; Long, Drawn-Out Battle to Follow
MP3s have been the dominant file format in the world of digital music for at least ten years, exploding with the hugely popular Napster file sharing program in 1999. Over the years, some file formats have tried to de-throne the mp3, most notably the m4a file format, but none have truly succeeded. Now, it is being speculated, a new file format has arisen that could prevail where past challengers have fallen short.
They call the format MusicDNA, and it has some pretty nifty characteristics that set it apart from most traditional file formats.
For one, the format allows for bundling of information like album art, lyrics, and even videos. Additionally, an update feature that can notify listeners of new blog posts by artists or tour dates can function as a specialized RSS feed for fans hungry for every bit of information they can gather. It doesn't feature any DRM, but listeners who download the file illegally will not receive the updates that buyers will.
BACH Technology, the Norway, Germany, and China-based company that created MusicDNA, is looking to launch the format by summer of 2010. Assuming it does not flop, however, it still has a lot of work to do if it plans on ousting the mp3 as the "industry standard" for digital music.
Source: Wired