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Google Visual Search Coming Soon to Android 111

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the my-donut-shop-returned-goatse dept.
Several sources have shared the news that "Google Goggles," publicly known as Google Visual Search, will be "coming soon" to an Android phone near you. Rather than typing in the search term, you will be able to just take a picture with your phone and search results will be returned. The new search was recently featured on CNBC's "Inside the Mind of Google." Unfortunately Goggles didn't pass muster with a recent focus group, so it could be a while before Google decides this is ready to hit the streets.

Comment android is disappointing (Score 2, Interesting) 324

by mofag (#30253024) Attached to: Google Attack On the Mobile Market Rumored

Google's Android is a huge let down, mostly because of Google's policy of rolling over and allowing us to get fucked by the other supposedly more traditional corporations. Apple says "please don't do multi-touch", they take it out (and fuck us), T-Mobile says "we don't want our customers to tethering" and so Google make it so no-one can tether (and fuck us - I am not even a US customer - how is this happening). Fuck Google and their phones (I have a HTC magic which I will need to hack to get it to do what Rogers told me it could before I bought it - i.e. tether - Rogers don't understand this either). I am saving my pennies and waiting for a Nokia (and maybe the next iteration which will hopefully be lighter). I was always a big fan of Google but they are too big and too much like every other corporation.
Google

Google Attack On the Mobile Market Rumored 324

Posted by kdawson from the first-the-itablet-and-now-this dept.
xchg writes in with a somewhat speculative, though plausible, piece from WiseAndroid claiming that Google is gearing up for an all-out assault on the mobile-phone market that will include a new, Google-branded handset and the first comprehensive Google phone service with unlimited free calls. "The real breakthrough, however, will come with the marriage of the Googlephone to Google Voice, the Californian company’s high-tech phone service. Google Voice gives US users a free phone number and allows unlimited free calls to any phone in the country — landline or mobile. International calls start from... just over a penny a minute. Google Voice also uses sophisticated voice recognition to turn voicemails into emails, can block telemarketing calls automatically and offers free text messaging. Google sounded its intentions two weeks ago when it purchased a small company called Gizmo5... [E]xperts are predicting that the Googlephone will be launched in the US early next year."
Science

Programmable Quantum Computer Created 132

Posted by Soulskill from the four-out-of-five-ain't-bad dept.
An anonymous reader writes "A team at NIST (the National Institute of Standards and Technology) used berylium ions, lasers and electrodes to develop a quantum system that performed 160 randomly chosen routines. Other quantum systems to date have only been able to perform single, prescribed tasks. Other researchers say the system could be scaled up. 'The researchers ran each program 900 times. On average, the quantum computer operated accurately 79 percent of the time, the team reported in their paper.'"
GUI

Simple, Free Web Remote PC Control? 454

Posted by timothy from the remote-viewing-the-cia-way dept.
MeatballCB writes "Hey folks. Being the 'technical' guy of the family, I often get calls from friends and family members when they're having PC issues. Most of these folks are not technical, so trying to troubleshoot problems over the phone can often be a challenge. Anyone know of a simple-to-use and (preferably) free service that would allow for remote viewing/control of their PCs? I know there's WebEx and GoToMyPC, but I hate to pay for something I'd use once every two months. I also know about VNC, but trying to walk someone through opening up ports on their router that thinks their Internet is broken when their homepage gets changed is not realistic. Anyone know of anything that would be easy to set up and use?"
Google

Chrome OS and Android "Will Likely Converge" In the Future 155

Posted by Soulskill from the convergent-evolution dept.
xchg writes "When Google first announced that the company would be pursuing development of two distinct operating systems, many questioned Google's motivation. 'Google executives, including CEO Eric Schmidt, have downplayed the conflict ever since, asking for time to let the projects evolve. And a few days after Chrome OS was revealed, Android chief Andy Rubin said device makers "need different technology for different products," explaining that Android has a lot of unique code that makes it suitable for use in a phone and Chrome has unique benefits of its own. But Brin, speaking informally to reporters after the company's Chrome OS presentation on Thursday, said "Android and Chrome will likely converge over time," citing among other things the common Linux and Webkit code base present in both projects.'"

Comment Re:First... (Score 1) 357

by mofag (#30145510) Attached to: Total number of conventional, paid positions I've held:

I understood it the same way. I ticked "1" as even though I have had lots of crappy jobs in school and college, I interpreted the poll to be about real jobs - "conventional paid position" - and not: delivering papers, temping in a warehouse, life-modelling for art students, dealing weed to your friends, working for your own business, lap-dancing, being a lab rat etc. I had one real job in Montreal in which I had to get up at the same time 5 days a week and I was dealing with clients and helping grow the company etc. all very grown up. The rest, including my current, much better paid and higher profile, contracting position don't really count as I understand it.

Comment Re:Wow. (Score 5, Insightful) 881

by mofag (#30131214) Attached to: NASA Attempts To Assuage <em>2012</em> Fears

I think that's what the suicide offers are for - to reduce the number of stupid people. Seems like a naturally self-correcting system to me. I say let it run its course. Next thing we will have 10foot disclaimers on the entrance to cinemas telling the dumb masses that its just pretend.

Comment "cord cutting" (Score 1) 675

by mofag (#30010258) Attached to: Cable Exec Suggests Changing Consumer Behavior, Not Business Model

I cut the cord and I don't miss it. The funny thing is the cable company keeps calling me up and offering me free cable. I tried it over summer and my wife and I made a concerted effort to watch cable. The thing is though, and I expect you're not going to believe me when I tell you this, they expect you to organise your life around their schedule if you want to watch a specific show. I know! Also, the amount of adverts just made it completely unwatchable. So I took the box back. Since then the cable company still calls me up offering free cable and I tell them we're not interested. They said if I ever change my mind I can have another two months of free cable and again with no obligation. I'm thinking maybe I'll let it in the house for the NHL playoffs.Then again....

The world has changed. Cable companies haven't and wont. They will go the way of the newspaper and the dial-up internet ISP.
Input Devices

Multi-Button OpenOfficeMouse At OOoCon 2009 265

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the flying-in-the-face-of-simple-design dept.
An anonymous reader writes "WarMouse has announced their new multi-button OpenOfficeMouse for OpenOffice.org at the 2009 OOoCon in Orvieto, Italy. The mouse, which features 18 buttons, a scroll wheel, and an analog joystick, has double-click functionality on every button and stores up to 63 application and game profiles in its 512k of flash memory. The OpenOfficeMouse runs on Windows, Linux, and OS X; its customization software will be released as free and open source software." We couldn't decide if this was a protest against Apple's new magic mouse, an elaborate practical joke, or just plain insanity run amok. In any case, it is hard to imagine a world in which so many tiny buttons on a mouse make sense.
Displays

On-Demand Video + CMS + Interactive Input For Museum? 131

Posted by timothy from the free-reign-in-spain dept.
remolacha writes "I've been given the task of tech chief for a biggish art museum (1,300 m^2, or about 13,000 sq ft) in Spain. The museum's designers want 20 'terminals' that will offer on-demand video and interactive content. The terminals' content will change with the exhibits; many will have touchscreens. More interesting forms of input are planned as well (floor sensors, big buttons). It's all on one floor, and the floors are raised, so I can run cabling and set up floor ethernet jacks. Max cable run is 60m / 190ft. The museum may expand to 4 times its projected size once open, by comandeering other floors in the building. To give an idea of where the designers heads are, they were talking about a massive DVD changer in a closet somewhere. I am thinking an intranet running a web server with a CMS and Flash media server, terminals running Firefox in kiosk mode. I'd love to do everything on Linux. Does anyone have experience with a setup like this, better ideas, or advice?"

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