Matthew Panzarino over at The Next Web linked to some interesting Steve Jobs videos from his time at the helm of NeXT. The videos of brainstorming sessions show him interacting with his NeXT team and demonstrating the NeXTStep software. The first of three is linked above.
While the videos shed light on the way Jobs manages planning, it also shows his interactions (read: disagreements) with his team, including long-time colleague Joanna Hoffman of the original Macintosh team.
Many of us have been really taking in the Steve Jobs stories of late. I guess we kinda miss him a lil’ bit — genius, tirades, and all.
Tired of your iPhone case not pulling its own weight? Well, Treehouse Labs is out to change that with their new “Smart Case” called BiKN. With the combination of a free app, the Smart Case, and the matching “tags,” your phone is now constantly keeping track of your precious items.
So, how does it work? In the simplest of terms, the BiKN Smart Case is an RF receiver and transmitter that is paired with a number of special tags that also receive and transmit radio frequencies. These tags are small little chunks of plastic that are latched onto loops, rings, and straps. You attach the tags to your favorite junk, and now the case can help you find where your things may be hiding.
In the “Leash” mode, you use the myBiKN app to set the allowable distance between your tags and your BiKN case. If you walk out of the door without your BiKN-tagged keys, an alarm will sound — on the device and/or the tag. It’s completely configurable. The other two modes are “Find” and “Page.” They’re fairly self-explanatory. Find will help you find your tagged item while page will sound an alert on the tag.
I’m pretty excited to see so many interesting things being done in the accessory space. Of course the iPhone and iPad are incredible devices, but seeing them interact with other objects to make life better just tickles something deep down inside of me. I love seeing great innovative companies taking a platform like iOS, and then making things like BiKN that extend the functionality in a direction that Apple probably never even considered. It’s a beautiful thing.
Interested in grabbing a BiKN for your very own? Not so fast, Bub! They’re not available yet, but you can subscribe on their website to be notified of the launch. Keep a look out for the BiKN Smart Case this December.
Getting live updates of what song is playing in iTunes isn’t difficult these days with the dozen or so applications that provide the feature. But, the problem with these applications is that, well, they’re applications, eating up your valuable system resources. An excellent tip has surfaced on Macworld’s Mac OS X Hints page that solves the problem, and puts your track information directly in your dock, courtesy of iTunes.
If you’re comfortable with the terminal and typing in commands (or copying and pasting them) you can get artist and track information directly from your iTunes icon.
Out of all the social news websites on the Internet, one of the best, Hacker News, probably has some of the most interesting submissions on their front page. They’re often the most consistent, and it usually results in the best curated experience on the Internet. The problem, at least for me, is that the website leaves a lot to be desired. Thankfully, there’s a new app for that. The application is called Hacker News Paper, and it’s available on the App Store for $1.99 until November 28th.
The application stays true to its Hacker News roots, keeping things simple. But it provides a more iPad-friendly layout, and takes all of those Hacker News posts and puts them into a more traditional iPad-newspaper style, complete with a quick synopsis.
Perusing Hacker News is a lot easier, and finding new and interesting information is just a little bit better than heading over to the website. It automatically downloads all the front page stories, and the complete article text so you don’t have to leave the app to read the article.
Anyway, it’s pretty neat, especially if you’re big into Hacker News, so we recommend checking it out, especially now that it’s on sale for a limited time.
Clearly everyone needs to know exactly what I think of all the restaurants, products, and books in my life. It seems like the new-new frontier — with applications like Oink, and now Stamped, taking up the challenge recently — is rating things online.
The concept is quite simple. If you like something, you rate it. If you rate it, your friends see it and then try it out for themselves. Stamped’s take on the rating things is simple: You either like something, or you don’t. You don’t have to rate something on some arbitrary scale. You can either put your stamp of approval on that cake you like, which is the equivalent of you saying it’s 5-star worthy, or do nothing at all.
Pretty soon Siri will be taking live requests to spice up your life. Developers have already put together a hack that lets them control a Wi-Fi thermostat from the luxury of their couch using some Siri magic. Talking to your thermostat may have seemed far-fetched months ago, but with the release of Siri it’s beginning to look a lot like it’s more of a distinct possibility than science fiction.
Case in point, a developer, only known as @plamoni on Twitter, has put together a nifty video that shows Siri getting information directly from the thermostat by using a proxy server. “Siri, why am I so bloody hot?” [...]
As far as features go, you’ll be happy to know that it includes original dialogue from the famous animated special. In fact, it’s narrated by Peter Robbins — the voice of Charlie Brown. Just as important, though, is the soundscape. The iconic music, and charming sound effects take their place alongside the imagery many of us have come to love. Your little one will also get a lot out of the app thanks to the care Long Crow has put into making it interactive. Not only can the kids decorate their own tree, but they’re rewarded with little unlockables for playing with certain interactive parts of the app.
From a teaching aspect, this app, and ones like it, are great tools. Individual words and musical notes can be highlighted to separate them from the rest of the app. Tapping on a word will speak it for your child. It truly warms the heart to see such great technology being used to instill a love of reading. It makes me wish that I could have grown up in the 2010s.
FLICKR
YOUTUBE
RSS
November 21, 2011
0 Comments