[MobileRatty] tag: parties

Baking Hack - How to make Vampire cupcakes for Twilight parties

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:26:16 +0000

Okay, this is kinda a Halloween thing. But my wife likes cupcakes any time and all her friends are in to these Twilight vampire movies and books. So, In honor of my lady, here’s some cool cupcake hacks:

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

Baking Hack - How to make Vampire cupcakes for Twilight parties

Sonic Nausea Device makes you want to throw up

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:39:51 +0000

I realize that the title of this particular article is obvious, to say the least. After all, this tiny device is called the Sonic Nausea because it uses “a unique combination of ultra-high frequency soundwaves” to produce nauseous effects for those in its range.

The Sonic Nausea is also capable of causing “headaches, intense irritation, sweating, imbalance”, as well as making people puke. It is powered by a 9-volt battery that is actually bigger than the device itself. That won’t get you too much power, but it is possible to increase the runtime with six AA batteries with transistor clips.

The device is available at the SHOMER-TEC site for about $29.00, and the description states the possibilities are endless. For example: “hiding this device in your inconsiderate neighbor’s house might put an end to their late-night parties”. It went on to suggest other covert operations, such as hiding the Sonic Nausea in “the abusive bureaucrat’s office or the executive lunchroom”.

However, most of these examples are nothing more than petty revenge. I think the only situation that would justify using a device like this would be a hostage crisis or an unruly mob. The flashlight that induces puke was certainly designed for such events, but that particular device used LEDs, not sound.

I’m surprised that this vomit-inducing technology is readily available on the market. I’m not certain whether the power to make people vomit should be in just anyone’s hands. Chime in with a comment if you agree or disagree.

Source

Check out the Coolest Gadgets 2008 Gift Guides, Christmas shopping made easy.
[ Sonic Nausea Device makes you want to throw up copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Apple sees junta of conspirators behind Psystar

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:23:43 +0000

Oh, Apple. Always seeing a conspiracy everywhere! The spying cogwork vermin of the Illuminati scurry in the corners, controlled by the machinations of the murky, omnipresent Man.

The latest junta of bogeymen Apple descry? A conclave of mysterious accomplices of Psystar, makers of cheap, third-party Mac clones. According to Apple's latest court filings:

On information and belief, persons other than Psystar are involved in Psystar’s unlawful and improper activities described in this Amended Complaint. The true names or capacities, whether individual, corporate, or otherwise, of these persons are unknown to Apple. Consequently they are referred to herein as John Does 1 through 10 (collectively the “John Doe Defendants”).

In essence, they are reserving the right to add additional defendants to the suit later. It seems wildly paranoid, but Apple might not be wrong that Psystar is getting support from other parties, though I doubt it is as dastardly as Apple makes it sound. There's a lot riding on this case: if Apple loses, it will open the floodgates on third-party Mac clones, and also set a precedent against their EULAs. There's a good number of people who'd like both things to happen, either for financial gain or just for the principle of the thing. But my guess is that any help Psystar may be getting from such unnamed third parties comes by way of advice and funds for their legal defense... which hardly makes them accomplices in a crime.

Apple's also added a charge of DMCA violations against Psystar, which is almost certainly true... of course, under the utterly misguided DMCA, almost any kind of hacking is a crime, from installing custom firmware on your PSP to hackintoshing your MSI Wind.

Apple Tells Court It Believes Someone Is Behind Psystar; Adds New Claims, Including DMCA Violation [Groklaw]

Previously:

Psystar eggs Apple on, releases Leopard Restore Disc to customers ...

Psystar hires Apple-killing attorneys - Boing Boing Gadgets

Yup, Psystar will sue Apple for anti-trust violations - Boing ...

Psystar will allege Apple antitrust - Boing Boing Gadgets

Apple and Psystar head for mediation. What does it mean? Not much ...

How the Psystar lawsuit might go very, very wrong... for Apple ...

Psystar OpenMac monstrosities run OS X - Boing Boing Gadgets

Apple finally — FINALLY — sues Psystar - Boing Boing Gadgets

Nokia Home Control Center - My home is where my phone is

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 21:02:00 +0000

Nokia Home Control Center is a solution based on an open Linux based platform enabling the home owner to build a technology-neutral smart home that can be controlled with a mobile phone, using a unified user interface. Nokia Home Control Center supports the most common smart home technologies, including Z-Wave as well as enabling the incorporation for proprietary technologies. Thus, it allows third parties to develop their own solutions and services on top of the platform, expanding the system to support new services and smart home technologies.

Background - A puzzle that does not fit together

Building blocks for an intelligent house are readily available in the market. Putting it all together is, however, like trying to build a house from blocks that do not fit with each other. There are smart refrigerators, energy-saving washing machines, heating systems that can adjust the room temperature with one-celcius-accuracy, security systems with touchpanels, low-energy walls, programmable thermostats, self-adjusting curtains, configurable set-top boxes, self-operating yard lights and much more. The problem is all these systems are separate and you end up having a dozen remote controllers and miles of cables in the living room.

Until now, solutions to home automation challenges have been sought through the development of better sensor networks. Although they are, of course, very important parts of new smart home solutions, no single sensor network technology can solve the challenges in this field. Z-Wave, ZigBee, and KNX are all attempts to define a common command language for home networks. So far, there has not been a clear winner in the battle for the de facto standard of home networks. Hence, it can be assumed that a future home will use several different technologies.

Nokia solution - When the development of a common language fails, build a dictionary

The Nokia Home Control Center acts as a dictionary that translates different technological languages so that they can be presented in a unified user interface. Furthermore, the platform enables grouping different physical devices, even from different manufacturers, to be presented for the user in an easy-to-understand way.

The whole Nokia solution consists of four main components:

1. The heart of the solution is the Nokia Home Control Center which is built on top of standard gateway architecture.

2. Two most important control nodes are the mobile phone and web browser.

3. The back-end server architecture ensures a seamless and secure link between a mobile device and the home gateway and also makes possible updating and upgrading software easily.

4. The partner devices. In addition to the components that Nokia is providing, the value for the end customer comes from the integration of different third party devices and systems under the control of one user interface.

It will be possible for example to monitor and control electricity usage, to swich devices on and off, and monitor different objects, such as temperature, camera, and motion. On one hand, Nokia Home Control Center can be used as WLAN gateway. On the other hand, the platform covers everything from a basic security solution to a more sophisticated heating control system. Users are free to build a solution that fits to their needs and expand it when ever they want.

Smart Home has been “coming” for 30 years – Why now?

Mobility is becoming increasingly important in home environments, as wireless technologies for smart home solutions are emerging. As structure wiring is no longer required, these are no longer niche market products meant for new houses. Wireless broadband has become main stream and multimedia consumption over home networks is increasing. From many studies we know that moving from a multimedia network to a smart home network is a much smaller step than building a wired smart home from the scratch. Finally, the last barrier of high equipment prices is breaking down as the technology becomes more and more common.

Partner program - Join the revolution!

Nokia Home Control Center is a platform and relies on third parties to integrate different solutions on top of the framework. Thus, Nokia is running a partner program for companies that are developing home solutions, for example, in security & safety, heating and energy efficiency areas. Nokia’s aim is to integrate state-of-the-art solutions from each area to the framework so that the systems can be controlled via mobile device. This provides the systems with remote access via the same user interface regardless if you use a mobile phone, web browser or an internet tablet, also enabling the different home systems to talk to each other.

Nokia will offer full API documentation, a library of basic control logic functions and development support for parties that decide to integrate their systems to Nokia framework.

Nokia Home Control Center In the Flesh

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:48:58 +0000

Nokia Home Control Center

Flesh? Circuits? Whatever. The announcement of Nokia’s Home Control Center last week was a little barren without some visuals to go along with it, so here’s the hub that will handle everything from opening your garage door to monitoring your home’s energy usage. Wi-Fi enabled S60 phones should be able to hook in seamlessly and allow you to remotely control home functions from your device. I’m curious to see what comes out of Nokia World for the Home Control Center - maybe demos of some cool apps in beta? The biggest thing at this point is getting third parties interested and using the APIs so we can see other manufacturers supporting the platform, at which point we could really see something like this take off. N-flavoured Wi-Fi, USB, ethernet and SD card slots will all be a part of the hub, and should be available to Europeans in late 2009.

Related News from IntoMobile:

Nokia Introduces the N97 Mobile Computer & New Ovi Services

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:08:52 +0000

Nokia today introduced the Nokia N97 mobile computer and new Ovi services, including Maps on Ovi and Mail on Ovi.

Nokia's global scope, assets such as NAVTEQ and a growing list of Ovi services, "uniquely position Nokia to transform the Internet to become a more personal and relevant part of our lives. And that's a claim no legacy Internet company can make."

Nokia N97: Making the Internet Personal
The Nokia N97, unveiled today, is designed for Internet-savvy people. With integrated A-GPS sensors and an electronic compass, the device intuitively understands where it is. The Nokia N97 makes it easy to update social networks automatically with real-time information, giving people the ability to update their 'status' and share their location as well as related pictures or videos with approved friends.

Nokia's flagship Nseries device packs a large 3.5" touch display, personalized homescreen and a full QWERTY keyboard, providing an 'always open' window to social networking sites and Internet destinations.

Maps on Ovi: More than Just a Mapping Tool
Maps on Ovi is the first free service that allows people to pre-plan their journey at home on their PC and synchronize with their mobile, giving access to pre-planned routes and favorite destinations while on the move. Over the coming months, Nokia Maps will become a destination for people to save and organize places, pre-plan trips and post-edit them. People can share their location and all their personally and socially meaningful content with friends, inviting them to join in activities.

Mail on Ovi and Nokia Messaging: Mobile Email for the Masses
Some 75% of the world's population has not yet used email. Many of these people will have their first email experience will be on a mobile phone, not on a PC. Mail on Ovi, together with Nokia Messaging which mobilizes consumer email and instant messaging on Nokia devices, brings mobile email to everyone and not just for a privileged few. With Mail on Ovi, users will be able to create and access email online portal as well as on their mobile device. Nokia Messaging, on the other hand, will give consumers access to their existing email and instant messaging accounts from Yahoo! Mail® and Yahoo! Messenger®, Windows Live Hotmail, Gmail and Google Talk, and AOL Mail as well as email solutions from thousands of ISPs around the world on the majority of Nokia devices. Nokia has shipped about 200 million devices that immediately enable the launch of its messaging solutions, including Mail on Ovi, Nokia Messaging and corporate mobile email (Microsoft Exchange Activesync and Lotus Traveler).

Nokia N97

Open for Innovation
A key element in making Nokia's vision reality is openness. Increasing openness makes it easier for third parties to develop services and applications for Nokia's solutions. For example, the planned Symbian Foundation will engage industry leaders in developing an open source platform for mobile computers and services, built on Symbian OS, already the most open and mature platform for mobile innovation. There are currently 3.5 million developers working on the S60 platform on Symbian OS, and more than 10,000 applications are available to date.

Nokia is also creating new opportunities for third parties to develop innovative widgets and other Internet service applications for Nokia devices, like the social networking widgets seen on the new Nokia N97's personalized homescreen. Over the course of the next year, Nokia will debut new and interesting opportunities to work together to create a highly personalized Internet experience on Nokia devices.

Review: Nikon Coolpix S60 Looks Good, But It's Touchy

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:05:45 +0000

If you watch television or read magazines, you've probably seen Ashton Kutcher swanning around chi-chi Hollywood parties with the Nikon Coolpix S60, a slick new digital camera with an iPhone-like touchscreen. The camera looks hot on the party scene, but as reviewer Michael Lasky discovers, it's a bit disappointing when you try to live with it for awhile:

With its high-gloss metal case and giant 3.5-inch, iPhone-like touchscreen, the Nikon Coolpix S60 just begs to be touched. But your lust will turn to disgust once you get to know this camera's internal quirks. In this case, beauty is only skin deep.

$350 • nikonusa.com
(5 out of 10)

Read the full review: Nikon Coolpix S60 Review

Nokia N97 Announced with Slide, Touch and a Tilt

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 11:48:25 +0000

Nokia N97

So much for Wednesday - the big announcement from Nokia World has dropped today instead, and it’s the N97 - a touchscreen slider with all the slanty goodness of the TyTN II due to hit store shelves in the first half of 2009 for EUR 550. We had heard rumours of a touchscreen N-series coming down the pipes, and it turns out they were right! Here are the N97’s specifications:

System: WCDMA 900/1900/2100 (HSDPA), EGSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
User Interface: S60 5th Edition
Dimensions:117.2 x 55.3 x 15.9 mm*mm (L x W x H) *18.25 mm at camera area
Weight:Approx. 150 g
Display:3.5 inch TFT with up to 16 million colors, nHD 16:9 widescreen (640×360 pixels)
Battery: Nokia Battery BP-4L, 1500 mAh
Memory:Up to 48GB (32 GB on-board memory, plus 16GB expansion via microSD memory card slot)
Video playback:MPEG-4 / SP and MPEG-4 AVC/H.264,up to 30 fps, up to VGA resolution, RealVideo up to QCIF @ 30 fps, Windows Media (WMV9) up to CIF @ 30 fps, Flash Lite 3.0 / Flash Video in internet browser
Music playback:MP3, AAC, eAAC, eAAC+, WMA
Camera Lens:Carl Zeiss Tessar™
Image capture: Up to 5 megapixels (2584 x 1938) JPEG/EXIF (16.7 million/24-bit color)
Video capture:MPEG-4 VGA (640 x 480) at up to 30 fps
Aperture:F2.8
Focal length:5.4 mm
Flash:Dual LED camera flash and video light
Talk time:Up to 320 min (3G), 400 min (GSM)
Standby time:Up to 400 hrs (3G), 430 hrs (GSM)
Video playback:Up to 4,5 hours (offline mode)
Music playback:Up to 37 hours (offline mode)
Connectivity & Data Services: WLAN IEEE 802.11b/g with UPnP support, Micro-USB connector, Hi-Speed USB 2.0, 3.5mm stereo headphone plug and TV-out support (PAL/NTSC), Bluetooth wireless technology 2.0 with A2DP stereo audio, enhanced data rates (EDR), GPS receiver with support for assisted GPS (A-GPS)

Social networking is apparently a big part of this handset, as it will make good use of GPS to integrate into services like Ovi and Friend View, although it’s really being marketed as a miniaturized laptop more than anything else. There’s still a fairly distinct line between UMPC and smartphone that the E-series Communicator straddles a little better than the N97 here, but we’ll let that slide. The N97 is also sporting a lot of draggable home screen widgets, a look reminiscent of Android and the TouchWiz UI. An S60 widget development platform has been in the works for awhile now, so you can expect third parties will be jumping on this one real soon. It looks like a great step to improving the smoothness of the Symbian experience and should make a solid addition to the N series. Pretty cool, huh? Who wants one?

[via Nokia]

Pictures and videos of the Nokia N97 after of the jump!

Related News from IntoMobile:

UK: O2 launches coverage in Glasgow Subway

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:43:55 +0000

O2 is spreading some festive cheer in Glasgow today, Monday 1 December 2008 when O2 customers travelling on the Glasgow Subway will be able to use their mobile phones underground for the first time.

To mark the launch of the underground network and to extend some Christmas spirit, a team of eight O2 ‘Angels’ will give away 2,000 tickets for the Glasgow Subway as random acts of kindness at the five busiest Subway stations where mobile access will be available: Buchanan Street, St Enoch, Partick, Hillhead and Govan.

The launch of the mobile network coincides with the busiest time of year when Christmas shoppers and revellers will descend on Glasgow, the UK shopping capital, outside London. O2 is the first mobile phone operator in the UK to utilise its multi-user distributed antenna system to enable mobile phones to work underground.

O2 is also highlighting how access to the mobile network on the Subway will bring personal safety benefits, particularly over the busy festive period when there are more parties and nights out. Travellers can phone or text friends and family to alert them to their arrival time, to give them peace of mind of their safety and to make social arrangements easier.

Footnote: This has GOT to be a good thing - even if it’s just for the safety perspective. Another round of applause for O2! My my my they have been busy bees today for news….! (see here and here)

[Via: O2 mediacentre]

Related News from IntoMobile:

Apple Offers No-fee Mini DisplayPort Licenses

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 14:42:17 +0000

Apple has loosened their tight turtlenecks abit, offering no-fee Mini DisplayPort licenses to parties who are interested in designing products around the new specification. It is hoped that this move will bring the fledgling display connector to mainstream consciousness. After all, they're pretty confident that most people would need resolutions of up to 2,560 x 1,600 on their desks, a resolution that is commonly used on 30" displays. Do you think third parties will pick up this license? Well, it would be interesting to see Apple's train get derailed for a while to give Microsoft a breather, whether it is a hardware or software aspect, but then again, we shouldn't have such nefarious thoughts about companies, right?

Permalink: Apple Offers No-fee Mini DisplayPort Licenses from Ubergizmo (US, FR) | Good deals | Hot: Storm Review

[MobileRatty] tag: parties

Baking Hack - How to make Vampire cupcakes for Twilight parties

Related posts

Sonic Nausea Device makes you want to throw up

Apple sees junta of conspirators behind Psystar

Nokia Home Control Center - My home is where my phone is

Nokia Home Control Center In the Flesh

Nokia Introduces the N97 Mobile Computer & New Ovi Services

Nokia N97

Review: Nikon Coolpix S60 Looks Good, But It's Touchy

Nokia N97 Announced with Slide, Touch and a Tilt

UK: O2 launches coverage in Glasgow Subway

Apple Offers No-fee Mini DisplayPort Licenses