As predicted earlier in the day, Apple’s Airport Express has just received an upgrade, enabling it to jig on the Internet at 802.11n speeds. The $99 price tag remains, but at least you get to keep up with the rest of the world with the new protocol support. Will you be making an upgrade jump?
Do you remember back in the days where laser light shows were the coolest thing you watch? Honestly I’m not nearly old enough to remember that sort of thing, though now and again I do hear of a laser Floyd show that I’d love to check out (huge classic rock fan here). I imagine that a good part of you could at least understand the appeal of colored lasers moving in sync with music, but what would you think about bubbles?
I just can’t imagine thinking to myself “boy, I bet this song would rock if there were some bubbles moving with the beat.” Apparently there is at least one person on this planet that had that very thought, because the Sound Bubbler was born.
This strange little device has will let you hook up your ipod (or anything with an audio output jack) and spits out bubbles while changing colors to the beat of your music. I guess that maybe you’d be able to see some cool stuff on your walls with the lights off, but I just don’t see it being all that cool. No word on pricing or availability.
Source: GeekAlerts
Those looking for Nokia’s 3555 candybar handset will now be able to get one from T-Mobile. This basic cell phone might not come with a wide range of bells and whistles, but it is said to support T-Mobile’s upcoming 3G network. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a front-mounted camera that is meant for video calls, so this could be a “modem-only” 3G phone instead. Other features include a rear-mounted digital camera, a microSD memory card slot, Bluetooth connectivity, and instant messaging support. It retails for a mere $150 a pop.
The GH-KANAGTR-2G mp3 player from Green House comes with the following features :-
This $92 MP3 player shouldn’t be breaking any sales records anytime soon, but it makes for a functional workhorse.
Genius has just released their new 3D surround sound quality headphones, the GHP-05 Live. The GHP-05 Live features enhanced true bass levels that contribute to producing that 3D surround sound quality. The GHP-05 headphones also offer a wide acoustic range which should offer good quality with a variety of audio from classical to vocal music.
Genius has built the GHP-05 Live’s true 3D sound quality using precise echo phase control that creates clear and natural sound. This is the same technology that enables engineers to power amplifiers and speakers to make the sound moves around in a super low-bass, upper high-treble and pure vocals. Giving credit to the headphone’s soft velvet padded ear they should offer comfort for extended wear.
With a price tag of $59, the GHP-05 Live headphones come with an extension cable, a 3.5mm-RCA converter and a 6.3mm gold plated adapter that can be connected to any audio devices. The GHP-05 Live looks cool and sporty although some may get turned off by its bulky design, especially now that there are smaller and slimmer headphones available in the market today. But for loyal users of Genius products, the GHP-05 Live would be a good addition to other their other Genius speakers.
Product [Genius] Via [Business Wire]
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Helio has finally realized that Opera Mini is the favored browser among its users so they’ve made it official. An improved Opera Mini browser (perhaps optimized for Helio) is now available for download direct from Helio. If you’re checking out their web site and don’t see anything, don’t fret. Helio hasn’t made an official announcement about this yet but the Opera Mini client really is available for download. HelioCity is reporting about this and they’ve included instructions on how to download Opera Mini as well.
How to get it:
1. From the idle screen, type the jumpcode “67372” (OPERA).
2. Hit the flamekey
3. Download, and enjoy!
This makes Helio the first carrier to officially support Opera Mini as an alternative to their very own native browser, and for good cause.
Via [HelioCity]
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The latest notebook that is rumored to be to hitting the ultra-mobile, or Eee PC competitor market looks like it could be the Intel Netbook. A few pictures have turned up of the new device courtesy of a “buddy that works for a US Based OEM.” The Netbook is said to feature a 9-inch display, 900MHz Celeron processor, 512MB RAM, 40GB hard drive, Wi-Fi, Ethernet and will be running Windows XP. The Netbook also weighs less than three-pounds and has a carrying handle built-in. Rumor has it that the Netbook will be landing in the US around June and be in the ballpark of $400.
Of course with all leaked pics, we are left to wonder just how accurate or real they are, based on these blurry, but somewhat nice camera-phone style pics the Netbook does have a nice appearance. As usual, time will tell. Keep reading for a few more of the leaked images…
Read [Tech Cornerstone] Via [Gizmodo]
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If you’re tired of clicking through pages and pages of search results, then Surf Canyon is just what you need. The technology comes in the form of a plug-in for Firefox and an Add-on for Internet Explorer and transforms the way you use your favorite search engine by showing you results that normally are buried multiple pages back in your result. Surf Canyon decides which results to show you based on a real-time model of your information needs. You can read more about how the technology works in the interview at the end of this article.
Testing
I navigated to the Surf Canyon website. If you don’t already have the plug-in or Add-on installed, then you can download and install it from there. If you do have it installed, it will notify you that it’s already installed and can be used on Google, Yahoo!, and Live Search (MSN).
For my test I typed in choosing newborn bottles into all three search engines. I decided to type that instead of something technology-related for two reasons. First, my wife just delivered our second child, and we’re struggling with bottle selection at the moment. Second, I’m a master searcher, so I wanted to do something that the average user would type into the search box instead.
The plug-in / Add-on works by adding a bullseye icon next to the standard results. When you click the icon, you get real-time recommended search results, culled from the multiple pages that were returned in your search engine’s results.
Google
My search yielded more targeted, relevant results made up of three results with one from page 2, one from page 3, and one from page 18 of the results. Of course, I would never have clicked to page 18, but it included a review that I am actually interested in reading.
Yahoo!
My search on Yahoo! also showed more targeted results in the first page than I was used to. You can see below that it included one from page 4 and another from page 2. I found the results to be better at Google, but that also has more to do with the search engine itself.
MSN
My search on MSN grabbed results from pages 2 and 3 and yielded completely different results than the other two search engines. Again, it turned up an article I probably wouldn’t have read since it was on page 2, and I’m used to just clicking around on the first page of results.
I should also note that I clicked on the first link in the result. Had I clicked lower (I can click on any of them) I probably would have seen an even better result. I also didn’t try to optimize my search criteria, which I tend to do when I search. Instead, I tried to simulate the average user’s query.
Summary
This is a must-have plug-in. It works in Firefox and IE, and because you have to click on the bullseye to see the results, you can choose to use it…or not. I’m going to use it going forward, since I’d much rather see results from page 18 without having to click through to page 18 to find them.
I tend to use Google for the majority of my searching, and this tool breathed new life into the experience. I’m also going to show my wife how to use it, since she tends to type queries like “which bottle is best for my newborn” instead of trying to fine-tune her own search query.
You can read more about Surf Canyon at SurfCanyon.com or download the plug-in and test it out for yourself.
Interview
I was so captivated by the Surf Canyon technology that I got Mark Cramer, CEO of Surf Canyon, on the phone and did an impromptu interview.
Why did you decide to make a plug-in instead of a destination search site?
We used to have a destination site / search site. it proved difficult to manage, and we felt that the user experience of a plug-in is better. You download it, and you don’t ever have to think about it again. You can go back to your normal routine of searching your favorite search engine. It’s a quick download, and you’re ready to play.
I understand that it’s in beta, but how do you plan to make money?
We are building a real-time model of the user’s intent and going into the results and fetching the relevant results based on the user’s ‘at the moment’ intent. We will then add advertising based on the relevant results that the user clicked on. Right now, we’re experimenting with adding Recommended Sponsored Links below Sponsored Links on Google, for example. We’re also looking into licensing partnerships.
Why wouldn’t Google and others just change their search results to render your plug-in useless?
To the extent that our technology improves the search experience, and we’re transparent about what we’re doing, we believe that real-time personalization is something that every search engine will embrace.
What’s next for the plug-in? What cool enhancements can we look forward to?
The big thing in the upcoming version will be Preferences. Through a link in the Tools dropdown, users will be able to selectively activate Google, Yahoo! ,and/or MSN as well as control the number of recommendations that are returned when clicking on a result or on a bullseye. We’re making it so that people can get up to 5 recommendations per action; however, the default will continue to be 3. This ability will also enable us to provide additional preferences in the future.
We’re Geeks, so give us the low down on what’s really going on to give me more targeted results.
The technology observes the actions of the user as the search session is taking place in order to build a real-time model of the user’s information needs. Some of the important signals are selected search results, skipped links, query reformulations, and time spent reading results pages. This model is cumulative and probabilistic, so that as the user continues the search process, our inferences can either be reinforced or discarded. The inference model is mapped onto the result set in order to calculate the “instantaneous relevancies” of the documents, which are then used to dynamically update the page through “recommendations.” Ultimately, our technology is transforming static lists of links into dynamic search results pages that “work with” the user to identify relevant information. The tricky part is combining multiple user behavior signals with non user-specific search result relevancy algorithms to maximize the probability that the recommended results will be relevant to the user. Optimization is a significant component of what we do.
Why the name, and what made you think of the idea?
I got the idea in March 2006. I was on a flight, and I remember reading an article in a magazine that was of particular interest. Unfortunately, not only did I not finish the article, but I left the magazine on the plane. A couple weeks later, I thought I’d look to see if I could find it online; however, I couldn’t remember the name of the magazine, the author, or the title of the article. I did, of course, remember the subject matter. However, no matter how hard I looked I couldn’t seem to generate the “magic” query that would produce this article in my search results. I spent a couple hours trying different things, paging through the results, reformulating my queries, adding quotes, and using other “advanced” techniques–all to no avail. I never did find it.
It was then a couple weeks after that that the idea of a new search technology hit me. What I wanted was something that would figure out what I was looking for “on the fly” and then start helping me to dig through the results. It just seems like I was giving the search engine so much information about my intent, beyond the queries, that it should have done a better job of organizing the results. I felt like the entire onus of producing queries and digging through results was upon me, and I wasn’t getting any assistance. It was both frustrating and lonely. What I didn’t know at the time was that what I wanted was “real-time implicit personalization” for search, which is the product we just launched.
My sister, Merryl, came up with the name. “Surf” refers to surfing the Internet, of course, and “Canyon” refers to depth, and implies how our technology digs “deep” into the results to find relevant information. Currently, we can go as deep as 100 pages, or 1,000 results, so that’s the “Canyon.”
Some of the best hacks are done by simply taking a second look at the things you have around. The amazing ipod Nano Media Center is a great example. Photographer Ben Long was taking a product shot with an already cobbled-together setup and needed to make sure the camera was straight. But instead of walking three blocks to the store to buy a level, he hacked together a home-grown solution with his iPhone.
Ben fired up iLevel, an application which uses the iPhone’s accelerometers to turn it into, yes, a level. He sat it on the back of his Canon G9 and, using the self timer instead of a remote release to keep the whole rig steady, completed the assignment. Now somebody just needs to figure out how to use the proximity sensor to measure distance and we’ll have a perfect companion for our Leatherman.
The iphone As Photo Accessory [Complete Digital Photography via John Nack]
If you already own one of the early B1 or B2 AMD Phenom chips, or if you like stuff on the cheap, you will soon be able to run on any motherboard with the Table Lookahead Buffer “fix” disabled. This fix is the one that causes a 5-20% performance dip to protect users from a supposed rarely occurring bug in AMD’s early Phenom chips.
AMD is now claiming it is working with motherboard manufacturers to help enable new BIOS releases that will allow users to turn the fix on or off to get the common 5-20% performance increase and take the risk of running into the uncommon TLB bug.
It sounds like a good idea to me. Give the users a choice, at least.
Read more at Tech Report.
