A New and Simple Innovation from Apple : EasyPay Service

Last week , I went to the Apple Store in a nearby mall, As usual it was buzzing with young kids and Adult Mac lovers, I just went to buy a scratch guard for my iPhone 4.

 

Apple store always have very long queue, I was waiting in one of such queue and one Apple Store Representative directed me to newly opened Express Shopping section. I navigated through the shop to reach the destination.

 

There I was totally taken in surprise, another Apple Store Rep came and told why are you waiting in the queue, when you can buy without waiting in Queue

 

I was like what a self check out machine in Apple Store?

 

He smiled and said, you can buy from your iPhone 4 using Apple Store App, I was totally surprise and the experience was unique, and felt very happy

 

Pre – Requisite

• You need to be in Apple Store :D
• You need to connect in Apple Store Wifi
• Your iPhone 4 or 4S should connect have Apple Store 2.0 App

Working

 

Open the Apple Store App and touch the “Cart” Following Screen pop up.

 

 

You just click the Easy Pay option, Scan the barcode of the bill and the product details will popup in your phone. Then just checkout the product, it will automatically debit the amount from your credit card associate with the Apple id.

This feature is not applicable for Mac pro laptops , big products like that for other accessories no worries , we can just walk in use my iphone pay it and walk away

A Small innovation makes a huge impact saving time and unique experience

Will Apple Fall Again, Will History Repeat ?

Way back in 80’s when Xerox engineers came up with their ingenious Mouse and window based Operating System. The Xerox Boss laughed and said what do you think, we are going to sell mouse and put the project on scrap.

Young Engineers thronged to the Xerox center to study the Alto and Steve Jobs gave a commercial hit with the Mouse and GUI based or Window based Operating System to the world.

When all was going well ,Microsoft came in to the play , they developed (they indeed screwed Apple over icons and Dialog patent) a GUI operating system called Windows.

Stop Stop , this is a very old history, why we should talk about this now.

Because the war is out again, indeed in the same style. that time it was PC and this time it was Mobile platform

Then

Microsoft created Windows Operating System and distributed to multiple Hardware Vendors and that indeed cost very badly to Apple, Still now they are not out of it. The Status quo has changed from then.

Now

Google has created a open source Operating System Android OS (decent copy cat of iOS) and doing the same, its distributing the Mobile Operating System to various hardware vendors . Apple is still going with its Hardware + Software Bounded Model, which has already cost them the huge PC market.

Now to more foray Microsoft has launched its new Mobile Operating System, which means they also providing the software to multiple hardware.

New Mobile OS are all set to come from Nokia + Intel called MeeGo, so the race is heating up.

Now if you take the stats , Once Apple iPhone has no competitor but now Google’s Android is capturing the smartphone market.

Now the Big Question is will Apple release iOS for other hardware ?

For me this is a simple question but for the company its a huge strategy shift, that will change the whole stuff.

But Apple has won our hearts with its cool creation iphone(same way they won with MAC long back). Will the History Repeats????…..

Top Ten Gadgets for Lazy Peoples

1. Toothpaste Dispenser

For those who are very lazy to take the toothpaste, open the cap position it against brush and squeeze the paste out. Now with this Gadget you just need to press the button.

if you need more attractive one check this , it will hide the half squeezed tooth brush and one more feature is you don’t need to press a button just push the toothbrush head this is called Touch Brush

Image Source

For Buying : Check here

2. Automatic Soap Dispenser

Image source : click here

3. To Do List Tattoo

This cool stuff helps your hubby not forget your shopping list.

Image Source

4. Motorized Ice Cream Cone

For those lazy ones who feel lazy to rotate the ice cream cone and ate, what an idea sirji?

Image source

5. Wine Glass Holder

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6. Automatic Noodles / Spaghetti Fork

For People on the Move , just dip the bowl of Spaghetti / Noodles and press the button, No more hard work and fight with Spaghetti

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7. Automatic CD / DVD Writer

 

For those guys who feel taking a blank DVD, press the DVD writer button, Open it put the DVD and close it errrrrrrrrr how much work. Simply put the whole DVD bunch it will take care of your problem

8. Shopper Bag Hanger

This one is good indeed for shopaholics or for hubby whose wife do lot of shopping, now don’t worry about carrying lot of covers, you can just hang them all

9. Boy Friend Pillow

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10. Gal Lap Friend Pillow

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Special Gadget

Mobile Phone Wrist Carrier

For those who talk more (for lovers and engaged people) tired of holding your phone in hand try this it will reduce tiredness and increase your productivity

Ding Ding Buumm – Touch Screen SkinPut

Remember Singaravelan Movie(Tamil) where Kamal hasan taps on Thai Amma’s Hand and says

“Ding Ding Ding Bummm” --- People have used this to found a new touch screen technology called Skinput ( I think People in Microsoft Research Lab has been inspired from this movie lolz (Tamil Lollu))

Technology

This future technology is developed in collaboration with Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University. The system works with acoustic waves i.e. it has the ability to pick the Ultra low frequency sound also it can have a pico projector to display the User Interface on the Hand

 

Working

When ever we tap on our Arms or Hand we get sound, people have captured that sound to recognize which part of the hand you have tapped based on the Bone density, Mass and size, distance between the joints and also filtering from soft tissues this makes each skin area sound as unique one or the system can easily identify the “Skin Button”

If you normally tap the hand we won’t feel any difference but when seen in a slow motion each tapping produce a transverse wave. This technology is actually harnessing those bio acoustic waves for processing.

The system beams a keyboard or menu onto the user's forearm and hand from a projector mounted in an armband. The acoustic detector which is also mounted in the armband will calculate which area the user has touched the skin.

The system could use wireless technology like Bluetooth to transmit commands to many types of device including phones, iPods and even PCs , TV etc

In Picture : Chris Harrison ( Researcher, Man behind the Technology)

Interface

 

Currently the research claims to have achieved a 95.5% accuracy in tapping, the pictures shows the different tapping areas of the hand

The Tap area gives us minimum 10 skin button which is enough to control any Phones or Personal Media player (PMP) like iPods, MP3 players,

The above picture shows the User can regular User interface with back button or like this they have developed scrolling option in hand, if you tap on top of the hand it will scroll up, if you tap near hand elbow joint it will scroll down. To go back to previous screen you need to pinch or touch your thumb finger with any other finger.

The Touch screen technology is surely different one.

Applications

So far this is a Research Project has some cool applications. The below picture shows user controlling Tetris game in the computer by tapping his finger

 

This below picture is showing a tetris game projected on your hand using pico projector

Source : New scientist

Watch this video

so the Future is your hand saying is becoming true :)

Tech Tweets : Windows Mobile 7 Phone Series

So its the last throw of Dice for Microsoft in Mobile Phone OS arena, after its over taken by Iphone OS and Android. It Seems 7 is been lucky for Microsoft ,Lets see what this Windows Mobile 7 Phone OS offers

Core OS

Good News is Microsoft has developed this OS from the existing Zune OS leaving the Old Windows Mobile 6.5 in Scrap. But Bad News is for Windows Mobile App developers, no news as of now whether it support .Net Compact framework or backward compatibility with old Windows Mobile 6.5. Microsoft is yet to provide its new SDK for this version of OS.

User Interface

Gone are the days when we use Stylus in touch screen PDA and Smart phone (PALM, HP ipaq, Asus etc) when Iphone made everything work with your fingers

Windows Mobile 7 Phone has new concept call hub, it has 6 hubs organized as People, Pictures, Games, Music + Video, Marketplace, and Office. which is called as Live Titles, you can modify the home screen to some extend.

The interface is much like Zune HD with flipping, zooming all fancy stuff. if you Scroll down to find more big, live tiles: Calendar, Exchange, Windows Live, Me and Xbox Live. Scroll right to find the list of all apps on your phone.

Music

it uses the same Zune HD interface , just like we have ipod feature in iphone we have zune in Windows phone

Social Networking & Browsing

it support Face book ( every one knows Microsoft invested heavily on FB) and windows Live so you can always be connected. it supports other Social networking also.

The new Web browser is based on Internet Explorer, and includes pinch-to-zoom and automatic column reformatting. Bad news is as of now it does not supports FLASH, it seems everyone is moving in Apple way.

Every phone will have Bing Search button :)

Pictures Gallery

This one is cool they have separate gallery view which is very much integrated with social networking you can directly sync with any cloud or social networking for real time update. off course you have all that multi touch zooming and scrolling option

Games

The whopping mobile gaming market which Iphone has created must have made Microsoft to include this feature, We have a cool new Xbox Live for mobile, its same as the Xbox Live which we have inXbox 360 connect to your gaming world via phone and enjoy the games.

Email & Office

This is one will take the blackberries off the shelves the best mobile email client ever the integration is so superb and it has office onenote to take down all the notes

Hardware partners

Microsoft told earlier that HTC touch flo will not be a feature of this phone, the phone is heavy in graphics and they are smooth, sleek too. They had made a strict minimum requirements for this software to run such as

1. Capacitive multitouch screen with atleast 4 point touch
2. 5 – Megapixel camera
3. FM Radio
4. etc

As of now Microsoft is working with Qualcomm, LG, Samsung, Garmin Asus, HTC, HP, Dell, Sony Ericsson, and Toshiba. AT&T's their "premiere partner" in the US.

Reasons Why Apple iPad Will Fail

Now more details of the product is coming up, which is making me oh my God, why they missed the very basic ones

No Camera / No Video Chat

Being a Portal Mobile Internet device, it does not offer camera, so you cannot do Video Chat using the Ipad, dude you can ask me I will connect USB Video Camera see down for that too.

No Flash Support

Steve told Browsing will be great using IPAD, in reality 70% of worlds RIA in the world is in Flash, without Flash support, Your Rich Internet Application(RIA) cannot be accessed, so you cannot play online games, More shocker is

You cannot play games in FaceBook, So if you buy this product No Cafe world, No Farmville, No Mafia Wars etc

No Multi Tasking

Even My Old Nokia Phone does this, I can hear FM Radio while typing SMS but in IPad you can open one application at a time, it means you cannot hear music while U r browsing or reading EBooks. Technically speaking doing this gives the Apple IPad 10hr battery life, but as a customer multi tasking is important

No USB Port

You can argue with me, it has Wifi but the question is you cannot connect your Pen Drive or even CD / DVD Rom to watch a movie, No Usb Camera, No USB Keyboard, Nothing in USB is supported may be they don't want over load the OS with extra drivers.

You cannot even connect your Digi Camera, Mobile directly and download your photos since it does not have USB port, you need to download to PC then using Wi-fi transfers to Ipad errrrr a long process it ages dude.

Storage

Its limited only 16GB or 64GB no SD slot, you cannot increase the storage it is yet another let down either buy $899 Ipad or live with 16GB

No HDMI Output

IPAD supports HD videos, YouTube HD and you can buy a HD Movie in iTunes but you cannot connect to your TV and enjoy the same.

App Store

You need to buy everything from App Store, I personally feel this feature sucks in Iphone too. It pricey in long run and more over if you are a iPhone App developer your product to be approved by Apple and it supports only limited features not like windows

Tied to Network

The 3G version of Ipad is tied with AT&T other option is T-Mobile its a bitter news for US customers not for Indian

Conclusion

All this features made us to think why should we need to invest $ 499 to $899 for this device with no or less basic features, we can get a good Windows XP or 7 netbooks for $400 or less, where you can do multi tasking ,hear music, browse and important thing it has USB port So this Apple product has

started giving us Wow to Ohhhhhhhh feeling hmmm lets wait for more

Turn any Flat Surface into Touch Screen

Here comes yet another breath taking in CES 2010, A projector that converts every flat surface as touch screen. This technology sounds like the six sense, which was still in development these guys from Light Blue Optics has gone one step as a commercial product know as Light Touch.

Sneak Through the Hole

Image courtesy : Light Blue Optics

“In the picture a Sample Twitter Application running on a flat surface”

How's it Possible ??

It has projector which uses a technology called Holographic Laser Projection – or HLP™ to create the 2D images and infra red sensors for multi touch sensors. That do the trick. It can create a projected touch screen size of 10.1 inch.

 

Image courtesy : Light Blue Optics  “ In Picture Working of the Projector ”

What all it do?

It has a Windows CE operating system and support Adobe Flash Lite make it ideal platform and has Image viewing application which gives User Interface similar to Iphone and Microsoft Surface.

Let’s See some applications

  Image courtesy : Light Blue Optics

So whatever we saw in Sci-fi movies are coming true, its the very same way Tom Cruise did on Minority Report. Hope Light Saber of Star Wars too come in real life :)

Oh My God, Now we have Wireless Cell Phone Chargers

I have been dreaming to transmit electricity via LASER light,

Instead of passing current through copper wires,convert the current as LASER and pass it through optic fiber wire and the receiver will amplify the transmitted LASER to Current, it’s only a concept, I have just dreamed not tried.

The latest concept in the world of technology is the introduction of witricity. I was surprised and eager to investigate further and found out ….. Read the blog completely :)

Present Wireless Cell Phone Chargers

Palm Pre has released a wireless cell phone chargers in the brand name “TouchStone”.

The Touchstone charging dock uses magnets to align your phone in the correct position for charging, and allows you to use your phone while it’s charging.

The Touchstone Charging Dock charges the phone via Magnetic Induction , the same way battery operated toothbrush does.

Why they call as Wireless?

It’s all marketing gimmick, they say you don’t need to plug in your phone instead keep the phone on dock.

I would have been happy if i could keep my phone off the dock at least few centi meters  away and its charging automatically, anyways nice innovative stuff

Future Wireless Cell Phone Chargers

Nokia has gone one step ahead of palm and trying a really blizzard stuff, its harnessing the floating Radio Frequencies (RF) in air and convert them to electricity, sounds like science fiction movie,      a of R & D team from Cambridge is working on the prototype.

Is this stuffs are possible?

Now this question is running in your mind, we already have working proof for this, the oyster cards used in London , U.K uses this technology, they recharge itself using the radio waves emitted by the Card Reader as they are swiped.

The RFID tags, uses the similar technology to power up itself, Now radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, increasingly used in shipping and as antitheft devices, are powered purely by radiowaves.

Not Enough, In 1893 Nikola Tesla, who was so taken with the idea he attempted to build an intercontinental transmission tower to send power wirelessly across the Atlantic.

Nokia has gone the same way, they simply collect the weak TV signals, Radio signals to recharge, the device has a one wide band antenna and two simple circuit. The antenna and the receiver circuit are designed to pick up a wide range of frequencies — from 500 megahertz to 10 gigahertz — and convert the electromagnetic waves into an electrical current, while the second circuit is designed to feed this current to the battery to recharge it.

At present they are able to harness about 5 milliwatts which is good for a phone to be in Stand by Mode, but surely not enough for receiving call and making calls. They are trying to make it upto 20 milli watts, future is not so far before they make it to 50 milli watts, which is enough to make calls and receive calls.

So in the future,we can see endless youtube video, TV and chat in the phone without the worry of our battery getting drained.

Let’s Hope Future is bright and wait for NOKIA to come up with such a technology soon.

All the Best NOKIA Research team :).

Gadget Store : Print your Photos On the Go with Mobile Printer Polaroid PoGo

Remember the old days cinema where our Hero’s have a Instant Camera that take a snap and gives the photo immediately, the same technology and the same company after a some quite years in the instant photo industry Polaroid has come back with their new technology Polaroid PoGo (same old wine in New Bottle)

 

The new Polaroid PoGo is a Bluetooth & USB Mobile Instant Photo Printer, which can print from your Mobile Phones and Digital Camera in a instant on the Go. This innovative pocket-sized Polaroid portable printer will utilize a revolutionary process to create full-color digital photos without any ink cartridges or ribbons, thanks to the power of ZINK Zero Ink Printing Technology.

The Polaroid Mobile printer needs an unique ZINK paper to print the photos on. According to the company, “The patented ZINK Paper is an advanced composite material with embedded yellow, magenta and cyan dye crystals, activated with 200 million heat pulses, in 30 seconds, in a single pass.”

Features

• Prints High – Quality Pictures in Less than 60 seconds
• Prints Borderless 2” x 3”, Peel off sticky backed Images
• Inkless Printing (Unique ZINK technology)
• Compact size, Fits your pocket
• Wireless use Bluetooth Technology
• USB connectivity
• Re chargeable lithium-ion battery
• 15 Print per Charge

Specification

• Connectivity : Bluetooth, USB PictBridge
• Dimensions : 0.93"H x 2.83"W x 4.72"D
• Weight : 8oz
Official Site : Polaroid PoGo

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