Humanity has come to an intriguing crossroads. Our technology is evolving faster than ever, and yet the human experience hasn’t changed much since the golden age of Rome. We stand on the verge of a collision between these two worlds as our technology becomes increasingly integrated with the innate methods humans use to interact with the world. It’s a trend of “engaging the primal.”

Interface technology is an interesting field right now. It takes a long time to move forward, but when it does, the world moves along with it. For a time, we interacted with technology and computers through punch cards that indicated what we wanted done. Eventually, we re-purposed the legacy interface of a typewriter to arrive at the keyboard, expanding the accessibility of computers to most households. Then in 1963, the mouse was invented and with it computers eventually became centered around graphical interactions, no longer requiring arcane command line input.  Today the hot new interface technology revolves around kinetics. Multi-touch screens, image and gesture recognition, internal gyroscopes — as these technologies advance, devices like the Wii and the iPhone are quickly moving from outliers to standards.
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As many publishers and newspaper professionals contemplate the death of traditional print, along comes another format to participate in its demise, The “VOOK.”   The Vook, Simon and Schuster’s new hybrid book/video combination will be available on computers, iPhones and iPod Touch and allow you to read a book interspersed with videos that add to the narrative, or offer a visual aid for training and education purposes.

Vook’s marketing promises that you can read your book but also watch videos, view how-tos and connect in that social media way with authors and other readers. In fact their big push is that you can “do it all in one place…[no more] switching between applications or websites.” Read More »

This week Intel announced that it is investing $7 billion dollars to upgrade its existing facilities in New Mexico, Oregon and Arizona.

Intel’s President and CEO Paul Otellini said, “Intel will use the money to speed up deployment of Intel’s 32-nanometer manufacturing technology used to build faster, smaller, more energy efficient computer chips.”

Is this guy crazy? Intel spending all that money for chips?  We are smack in the middle of a deepening recession with aggregate consumption tumbling and this guy is shelling out $7 billion large ones?  Read More »

CES 2009 Las Vegas.  In a crowded section of the Microsoft booth, show attendees vie for position to get a first glimpse of the soon-to-be-released Windows 7.   Though the list of new features is plentiful, one in particular is sure to become the CE manufacturer’s best friend.

The new feature, dubbed “Device Stage” is a user interface that is automatically launched when a recognized device is attached to the system.  The interface provides a brand-customizable set of visual assets and actions contextual to the connected device. Read More »

The Lab team is heading to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week to roam the showrooms and take part in the massive gadget brain-exchange. We’ll be blogging live through the weekend–and here are 10 reasons you should stay tuned:

1. It’s like Paris’ Ready-to-Wear event of the year–but instead showcasing gadgets in Vegas. While there will be far more geeky men than hot models in pretty get-ups (I’ve already heard that a fellow digerati femme was one of only 10 women on her plane to Vegas), this is the place to look for what technologies and consumer electronics are coming down the line in ‘09. THIS is the place where dreams are made, battles are won, hearts are broken. Okay, perhaps I’m pushing it. But, if you have any desire to keep abreast with technology, stay tuned (preferably here) for all the latest and greatest advances in consumer tech.

2. We might finally learn if this is the year the Internet will kill the TV star. (Check out the WSJ’s round up of reasons how it might). It likely won’t–but this year even a scaled back CES promises some amazing new solutions for watching video and TV via the Internet including two of my favorite new devices: New player ZeeVee is presenting their ZvBox which turns computers into an HDTV channel on your TV set; WhereverTV allows consumers to watch hundreds of international television shows on your television via the Internet (sign me up!)

Stay with me, I’ve got 8 more reasons CES is THE consumer event of the year: Read More »

Layoffs coming to a tech company near you: Today the weekly sexy tech trifecta gets off to a somewhat downbeat start. The major tech news across the Web this week is not good: Layoffs are being announced at Yahoo, Ticketmaster, Nielsen Business Media, Veoh, and Circuit City, to name a few. That doesn’t include Texas Instruments who hasn’t cut any employees yet but announced a 27% drop in income and plans to sell part of its wireless operations. Ouch. The good news? Well, not much. Except that a Wired blog predicts a flagging economy will be a boon to blogging and personal websites as the folks who are out of work will invest in themselves until things take a turn for the better. If that doesn’t make you feel good about all the pink slips being handed out, check out this website that tracks startups that are, to ahem rephrase their site’s less polite name, really screwed.

Miley Cyrus’s hacker raided by FBI: This is likely my favorite tech-related story this week, if a little shallow. According to Wired.com, the hacker in question reportedly got access to the Disney teen idol’s Gmail and MySpace accounts, then posted photos of a bare-midriff Cyrus blowing kisses to the camera (probably an affectionate greeting intended for the Jonas Brothers). After bragging about his Miley Cyrus hack on digitalgangster.com, the FBI came calling. The Feds later left with three of the suspected hacker’s three computers and telephone.

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It is what is on the inside that counts: Apple is freshening up its MacBook laptop design and technology. The faithful lined up in Cupertino for the announcement, and the blogs tracked the event like pundits on the eve of a presidential election day.

Don’t expect a touch-screen laptop or another MacBook Air. But, clearly the company is taking the learnings of the MacBook Air into its new computers–the laptops are lighter and thinner, while including as many or more high-end features as the previous models. Digital Daily writes, “In many ways, these notebooks are more beautiful on the inside than they are on the outside.”

Another interesting note, Steve Jobs announced the company will no longer be using Intel Corp. graphic chips–instead moving to Nvidia Corp in the quest for faster processing technology.

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Breaking up is no different than it was twenty years ago—it is painful and discombobulating. Now after “the talk” and both parties going their own way, you can continue the unsaid words via email. And often it’s after drinking a few glasses of wine. Even if you spell check, it won’t do you any good. The worst part is, the next morning rife with mortification, there is nothing you can do about it. Believe me, I did it after a long relationship crashed this past May. I wish Gmail had come up with their latest invention sooner. I wouldn’t have lost my pride along the way.

Google’s Gmail has a new feature called Mail Goggles that could be a tremendously helpful tool. When you enable Mail Goggles it checks to determine if you really want to send that late night email. You must solve a few easy math questions in 43 seconds or less after you click “send.” See a screenshot after the jump.

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BlackBerry applications have been around for some time, but no one has aggregated these apps into a user friendly, stand-alone client for the BlackBerry…until now.

Introducing the BerryStore, a third-party BlackBerry application that aggregates dozens of free, handy applications that can browsed, reviewed, and downloaded directly to your BlackBerry.

Unlike the official BlackBerry Application Center, which is supposed to debut with the much-anticipated BlackBerry Storm, the BerryStore is compatible with all BlackBerrys, both old and new (including the Storm). The BerryStore is also available regardless of carrier (just go to BerryStore.com and download the application)–whereas the Application Center, according to some sources, will be individually hosted by carriers and may not be standardized.
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My brother pleaded with me for months to try out StumbleUpon. Please, he would say, I do not ask that much of you, just try it.

Now, I am hooked and have been having the same conversation with my colleagues and friends. The web-based browser’s “personal recommendation engine” truly makes web surfing fun again. Unlike del.icio.us., Digg or Technorati, the site is a more instant and integrative experience. You like something? Click. Thumbs up. You don’t like it, click. Thumbs down. No sign-in process necessary. Not only does it make passing content between users more fun, its technology enables users to discover diverse and sometimes obscure sites or articles they would otherwise have a hard time finding on the web. AND, when you’ve got the FireFox toolbar downloaded, the site functions like a real-time instant message platform where you can comment on articles or pages you like, or simply have a quick back and forth conversation. (See example after the jump). Read More »