Artist Creates 3D Illusions On 2D And Videos

Source:  Visual News.

You have to check out these pics and then the Youtube video below.  I had thought about keeping it until Friday movie clips but just can't wait to share it so here it is.  Using a couple of drawing pads, an artist by the name of Nagai Hideyuki created the following 3D looking artwork.

All of this is drawn by hand.  But I wonder if it's possible for some enterprising mobile developers to come up with an app that automate the process.  Sure, you'll still have to be creative with the art but for those of us who are depth impaired, maybe it'll help, yeah?

Just utterly incredible.  And here are just a few examples and more over at Visual New.

Here is Mr. Hideyuki's personal website if you wanna check out more of his crafts.  Highly recommended.

Now, here's a cute little video of a little creature that fell from its mother's nest and with the help of the artist, tries to get back home.

Mobile Intellgent Assistants Should Have Emergency Protocols

Siri is raw and in beta.  Could be in perpetual beta because it’ll be constantly learning new things.  Google’ rumored Siri-killer will likewise be in the same state of learning new tricks.  But there is one thing that I like any voice-enabled service like Siri to be able to do right away – contact emergency services and it should so easy that a toddler can do it.

I know that many toddlers know how to make calls these days.  It’s amazing how brilliant some children are.  But an one-click emergency service that even a three-year old can activate would be pretty useful.  In the example above, a fictional three-year old saves his mother.  It could be a grandparent, another relative, or a sibling who needs emergency medical services.

Imagine the following scenario:

Toddler finds a parent or grandparent unconscious.  He/she shook the adult but got no response.  So the toddler goes to the smartphone and presses the home button.

Intel Assistant: How can I help you?Toddler:  My daddy won’t wake up.  IA: Okay, do you want me to call for help?T: Yes, he’s sick or something.IA: I’ll connect you to emergency services.  (at this point, the IA tries to establish a connection to the 911 services).911:  Hello, who am I speaking with?T (gives 911 his/her name):  My daddy won’t wake up.  He’s on the floor.911:  Okay, I know where you are, an ambulance and an engine is being sent to your location.  Is this your home? (The smartphone has already transmitted the GPS location to 911.  T: Yes.  911: You’re doing great.  We’ll have someone there shortly.  I’ll stay on the line with you. How old are you?T: Three (or “I don’t know”.)911:  Can you hold the phone up.  Good. (Images are transmitted to 911 and first responders so they have a better handle of the situation before they arrive – if possible, the 911 operator can establish a two-way video chat with the toddler.)

Through the whole episode, the IA, whether it’s Siri or something that Google comes up with, is listening.  Upon knowing that the user of the emergency protocol is a minor and not the owner of the smartphone, a text is immediately sent to other family members on the contact list that the owner of the smartphone.

I’m sure other protocols could be written in for the IA to follow as well.

I hope the purveyors of mobile platforms will build something into this that will make it easy to contact and enable 911 services to quickly respond – a few seconds or minutes could make the diff between life and death.

And this doesn’t have to take years of development for this to work.  I think this can be done relatively quickly if all the innovators put their heads together with authorities to make this happen.  So yeah, the technology is within our grasp.  All it does is to take the might and political will to make this happen.  It’ll take the involvements of the FCC, emergency responders, device makers like Apple and Google, and the carriers.

The government already has an emergency alert system in place.  I reckon it would take another upgrade to the system and to 911 to make this work.

Friday Movies: Political Ads From Game of Thrones

Tis the Season for...ads.  Political ads to be exact.  And it's not late night that is drawing inspiration from real ads but TV shows that are getting into it.  Rather it's fans that are getting into it.

The following are three humorous ads based on the popular HBO show Game of Thrones.  And yeah, they're very well done, especially the first one about who the real king is and if he's even fit to be king, a play on the birthers.

Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Source:  Blastr.

Mobile War Far, Far From Over

While it’s half time now in America, according to Mr. Clint Eastwood, we’re probably in the middle of the second quarter in the mobile war.  For a while, folks, tech pundits, bloggers, and analysts, have kinda given Android a 50+% share of the market with the iPhone somewhere around 25-30% and the rest to be split up between RIM, Windows Phone, and others.

Well, I’m gonna tell you that is very premature.  The dynamics of the mobile market, both smartphones and tablets, are is great flux.  No need to recap what’s been going on.  Just know that the latest development in mobile is Microsoft’s entry into the hardware business.

And Microsoft is a company that has a reputation for not necessarily getting it right the first time around but doing whatever it takes to get it right.  Patience and persistence.  Microsoft doesn’t really have a choice.  This is not a market that it can afford to lose out.

So, we just learn that Amazon is furthering its reach with the Kindle Fire by offering its app store in Europe.  This ought to be very interesting given that updated Kindle tablets should be ready for the upcoming Christmas shopping season.  So, Amazon’s mobile plans are definitely in its infancy despite dominating the ereader market.

Then there’s also Apple that just launched its App Store in 32 other countries or territories.  You would think by now, Apple has already circled the glove within its iOS ecosystem.  And there are definitely more carriers and countries where iPhone and iPad penetration has not started.  And given Apple’s focus on the Greater China market, Apple has a lot more innovating and growth to go through.

Obviously, there’s Google.  Android is the most popular smartphone platform in the world but, somehow, I doubt Google is happy with the way things are going.  Lawsuits galore but it is also the feeling that things are slipping away from Google with respect to control of Android.  The core Android OS has been forked for various use that not only do not have necessarily any benefit to Google’s mobile plans or bottom line but are increasingly becoming competitors.

What Google has in store for Motorola.  It’s a card that has been held closely to its vest but we should know in short order.  As a mobile fan, I can’t say that I am happy with the deployment by hardware makers and carriers of Ice Cream Sandwich.  It’s just horrendous.  Maybe Google’s Motorola devices will get timely Android updates the way the Nexus devices have been.  And this ought to light a fire under its quasi-partners to step it up.

Lastly, Microsoft.  I know, there’s also RIM.  Blackberry 10 is a story for 2013 rather than 2012.  And that is assuming RIM is still around in 2013 as it is now.  More and more, RIM’s technologies (patents) and the Blackberry brand is more valuable in pieces to be sold off rather than trying to recapture its glory days.  And its corporate stronghold is slowly being eroded by the iPhone and will soon have to contend with Windows 8 smartphones as well.

So, that brings us back to Microsoft.  This week’s Windows 8 developments certainly has the desired effect – if raising eyebrows is what Steve Balmer intended.  Microsoft’s only major point at Monday’s LA special event where they unveiled its Surface tablet is this:  we’re doing hardware.  Many questions were left unanswered and the biggest one is will Surface be more of a Nexus or serve to further growth Microsoft’s revenue and profit like the iPhone/iPad has been doing for Apple.

And remember:  Microsoft can be persistence.  Stubborn, in fact.  And Surface will not be its first try into the mobile market.  We’ve seen it with Windows Phone 7 which has kind of served as a reset, new era for Microsoft in mobile.  We’re currently at Windows Phone 7.5 so Windows 8 should be Microsoft’s third try at mobile.

With Surface tablets, it shows that Microsoft has learned something valuable in the last couple of years.  Once Microsoft’s tablets go on sale, maybe we can finally call that the start of the third quarter in the mobile war.

Concept iPhone With Translucent Back - Well, You'll See

Source:  Forbes.

Forbes thinks this is stupid but they want it. I think it's brilliant and I want it.  It's a concept iPhone with a clear black that when you look at the iPhone, you can see clear through whatever is on the other side.

Again, I want it!  I think this is possible (eventually) and it could really make even today's thinnest smartphone look obese thickness-wise.

Obviously, there are gonna be issues like making the circuits, memory chips, CPU, and a bunch of other stuff really, really small.  I reckon it'll  have to be like 10 to 20x smaller than what we have today and up to 50x more power efficient.  If you look at this thing from the side, there really is no place for you to put a battery.

Having said that, I've always believed that we can reach this level of tech sooner rather than later.  Look at how calculators have shrunk over the years.  Look the collection of calculators from laurentian.

And remember those HP scientific calculators?  Yup, and now, we have calculators that run on the smallest most inefficient solar cells like the ones you can get for a few bucks at Office Depot.  We even have calculators on watches!

So, the question of whether we'll see this the-through concept iPhone or any other device isn't if it'll happen, rather, when it'll happen.  One think I believe whatever make such a device should do is allow the option to opaque the background so it can be less distracting when the user wants it.

So, iPhone 10 or 15, anyone?

Microsoft Tablet: Surface Demo Froze, Too Early To Call It "Fail"

I'm still waiting for more details to come out before chatting up (or down) Microsoft's Surface which I think has a lot of potential - so much so that I think Apple/RIM/Google fans could be in for a rude (maybe wonderful) surprise.

Meanwhile, these videos are circulating the Web - a Surface tablet that froze during Monday's demo in Los Angeles.  It's quite interesting to watch because the poor MS exec had to cover for the Surface freezing on him during one of the most critical demos in Microsoft's history.

While Youtube videos are calling this a fail, which it kinda is, mere points to the attention that Surface is generating.  I can totally see my next tablet being a Windows 8 device but there are a lot of issues that Microsoft has to work out and provide much more details about what the Surface tablet is really capable of.

Obviously, you can go with a safe choice in the iPad.  And Android fans can go with the Samsung Tab 10.1, the only Android tablet worth our hard-earned wages.  However, Windows 8 promises to provide something that neither the tablet market has seen.

Obviously, the details from Microsoft could ruin all that - like battery life, crashiness, costs, etc.  Until then, anti-Microsoft camps can enjoy this "epic fail".  I think it's all in good humor and we'll have to see if Redmond can really deliver.

This Surface freeze isn't an epic fail.  An epic fail would be Microsoft's tablet efforts in the 2000s.  This time around, hmmm, we'll just have to wait and see.

Apple & Facebook - Privacy Protection Or Open Floodgate?

I like that Twitter was integrated into iOS 5 and I use it quite a bit.  With iOS 6, I’m not as crazy as with Facebook integration largely because the lack of safeguards by Facebook to protect its users.  And now, they’re looking into lowering the age bracket that can join the social site, I’m afraid things could will be much worse since Facebook isn’t interested in protecting the children from predators and the bad elements of social media.

So, it falls to Apple and what it is doing to safe guard iOS and Mac users, many upon many are children.

So, Apple, I ask you this:  what is Apple doing to safeguard the privacy of its loyal users?  Is Facebook free to figuratively walk through Apple’s data centers and literally sift through the millions upon millions of bits of information about us?

I understand that if I share something via iOS 6 through Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg would have access to that information.  Well, what if I don’t want to share my location or contact list?  Right now, I am who I am with my Facebook account but I do everything I possibly can to avoid giving up any detail about me that I don’t think Facebook has the right to know.  I fear that by integrating Facebook in iOS 6, Apple will force those who wants easier Facebook access to give Facebook more information.

I suppose I always have the choice of not using Facebook via iOS 6.  But if using Facebook on my iPhone or iPad means that I have to give up contact info like I am forced to do on Android, then Apple’s Facebook integration is no better than what Google has.

I’m hoping that Apple is aware of this and will give us more options to use Facebook or  others without giving social media access to everything.  I like Twitter on iOS 6 because it don’t have access to everything.

Supposedly, iOS 6 would give the user more privacy control.  I think that’s a great thing, something I like to see Google and Microsoft provide for its users.  If implemented correctly, users would be able to dictate which apps can have access to contact lists and, hopefully, other information like locations (App on iOS now asks for permission to locate users but I like there to be a more case-by-case option).

I hope this privacy control also works against Facebook's prying eyes as well.

One more thing.  While I was completing this post, I came across this Patently Apple post.  Apparently, Apple had been working on a new way to counter websites that try to connect user data.  PA dubbed it the Anti-Brig Brother surveillance patent.  I’ve read through the long-ish and detailed post a couple of times.  I had to because it was pretty interesting and you get the sense that Apple is trying to go that extra mile to protect (maybe hoard for itself) iOS and Mac user data.