Goncalo Ribeiro

Twenty Eleven

Wow, it’s 2011 already! 12 days in, I already began scratching stuff off my 2011 list of resolutions and I see no end in sight. Today I’m also announcing a partnership with a site: GeekSmack.

As some of you probably know, my relationship with GS has been pretty on and off. I joined the site in July 2008, left for a first time in April of the following year, just to come back a few months later (as a member) and more recently leaving this past November as part of a refocusing effort in part due to time constraints. So you might be rightly wondering: ‘What now?’.

A few months ago, I learned that Neowin and GS member Jason (@jeayese) was working on an app review site (Unsucky Apps). I quickly got in touch with him and we began talks about me joining the site, first as a guest writer, and later as an actual member of the staff. Meanwhile, the staff at GS got interested in the site as well, and a content deal was made. We’re now in the process of integrating both sites together (which I’ll help with as much as I can), which at the end of the day means I’ll have the pleasure of returning to GeekSmack once again, as a staff member for the first time in nearly 2 years.

So what will I be doing? For starters, I’ll be reviewing software of all sorts, several times a week. Your feedback is important so be sure to post on our forums (an individual thread will likely be started soon) and let us know what apps you’d like us to review. I’ll consider community input over my own findings so you better get in there and tell us which awesome apps you’ve come across. Aside from app reviews I’ll also be blogging several times a day about the craziest technology, similar to the now suspended Crazy Tech Countdown column but not in the form of column and on a daily basis. Of course I expect feedback from you on that as well.

This is just the beginning of what’s shaping up to be a great 2011 both online and real life-wise. You’ll hear about the latter in the next several months, but for now, enjoy the new content and check out GeekSmack, MyBB Runway and all the sites I’m currently involved with. Oh, and one more thing: enjoy the blog redesign. Sadly I can’t take any credit for it.

Crazy Tech News Countdown: best interactive HTML5 video ever, future predictions from 1964 and no iPods!

It’s Saturday and you know what that means: time to count down five more crazy tech stories. This week we have the best HTML5 interactive video ever, the fancies 50-megapixel camera ever, 3D images you can touch and more. And I know you’ve been nagged about the new iPods, so we’re not talking about that. So what else can I say? Let’s count ‘em down!

5- Best Interactive HTML5 video ever – If you have screen real estate and a few minutes to spend, you might not mind giving out your home address just this time. This interactive HTML5 video, thanks to Google Street View technology, will show you a few shots of your home and your neighborhood. You can punch in any address really, like your previous home, and get the memories rolling. If this isn’t good use of Street View, I don’t know what else can be.

4- I have to play outside? Fine! *takes out arcade lounge chair* -Gamers are known to be resilient, and now apparently that isn’t limited to knocking out turrets. You see people going out and having fun and you’re stuck in your home with your pale sweaty skin. Sometimes you do wonder what sunlight might look like, given you get none. No worries: just attach an old console to a lounge chair and finally start breathing some fresh air, without actually having to leave your games inside. Well, assuming all you play is Pac-Man, but it’s still awesome.

3- A camera that can see more than the human eye – No, it’s not a camera that can see through invisibility cloaks, but it’s the second best thing: a camera that can shoot a 360º picture at once. That’s better than the human viewing angle of a mere 120º. This can be good for surveillance purposes or for taking huge panoramic photos without having to crop them and making them look weird.

2- 3D images you can touch? – Japanese scientists are developing a 3D TV that actually allows viewers to touch the images. By attaching clips to your fingers for tactile feedback (yup, now you’ll have to wear glasses AND clips, for now anyway) and tracking your movements thanks to 16 cameras, this TV lets user pinch, stretch and move 3D images. Right now we have a similar technology known as “real life”. Seriously though, if you don’t think this is awesome…

1- The future, according to British science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke in 1964 – Too bad, we don’t have laser beams yet!

And that’s it for this week guys. I hope you enjoyed this week’s stories, so be sure to let me know what you think by commenting. And until next week, geek out.

Crazy Tech Countdown - Crazy cookies and vending machines from Japan, plus the best time waster ever

Hey and once again welcome to Crazy Tech Countdown, the weekly column that showcases the edgiest, weirdest or just plain silly tech stories of the week. This week features the best software time waster ever, the return of Polaroid and a lot more, so get your protector goggles on and fasten your seatbelts because this is going to be a hell of a ride!

5- Is instant film gone? Think Again  - With everyone using SD card-based digital cameras nowadays, sometimes I miss our long family trips where my dad would take out his (at the time) brand-new camera to take a picture of a 5-year-old me, then we all would get ice cream. Alright, maybe that isn’t true given I wasn’t alive 40 years ago, but polaroids, or instant film as many call it, is still alive and well in Japan. This battery-powered camera uses 16-buck film with 20 photos each and might sell in the US with the price tag of $220. Of course this won’t replace your fancy digital camera but maybe if you want to bring back some of your childhood memories, this can perfect for you.

4- A vending machine that guesses what you want – In the West you can consider yourself lucky if you walk up to a vending machine and all buttons and labels are in place and the drink actually comes out. But what if your vending machine actually was a 47-inch touch display and guessed what you wanted to drink based on your sex and age? That came true today as a Japanese (yeah, where else?) railway operator started rolling out these smart vending machines throughout Tokio and Japan, about 500 of these. What do we do here in the West? We wait until they put us out of our misery.

3- How about an interactive story? – If you’re like me, sometimes you just sit in front of your computer with nothing better to do. Of course you could just go to YouTube or your favorite entertainment site, but I’d like you to consider this third option: an interactive story. As the name implies, it’s a flash-based story you can control by making decisive actions that will define its course. This one is about daydreaming on a summer day, kittens and talking birds. It has to be seen to be believed, so just click on the image below to check it out:

2- Dry your soaked cellphones for $12 – It’s never good when you’re on that very important business trip and your cellphone gets soaked for whatever reason. You could just go and buy a $20-phone or call your carrier hoping they give you a replacement (which sometimes, sorry, not gonna happen). However, some machines that claim to bring your soaked phone back to life are popping up in some shops in Tokyo. No word on how they actually go about doing it, but you’re only charged if the rehabilitation is successful, so there’s some guarantee right there. Could this be the end of soaked cellphones as we know it?

1- Augmented reality now actually lets you taste things – I remember how crazy people would go in the 90s over those huge helmets that would make you see things. That was great, but how about huge helmets that let you taste things? That’s reality now my friends, just watch this video from the University of Tokyo:

That’s it for this week. Please let me know what you think by replying to this as well as stories you’d like to see in the future. See you next week with more crazy tech!

Crazy Tech Countdown: Week of 08/07/2010

Hello and welcome to the first ever installment of Crazy Tech Countdown, the ongoing series where we (and by “we” I mean me and my best friend, Internet) scatter through the web every week to find the real gems, from the world’s craziest robots to the most pointless iPhone apps. So without further ado, let’s count ‘em down.

Buses driving over cars? – Still not the hover car we’ve all been dreaming of, but this might be the second best thing. What’s more frustrating that having to get on a crammed bus after a full work day and if that wasn’t enough, being stuck on it for hours just because of the traffic? China is working to get rid of all that with buses that will simply drive over the traffic, avoiding that way all traffic jams and most accidents. Construction will begin in Beijing’s Mentougou district and I only hope Western countries follow suit, which might be hard with the current budget problems. Still, I can’t wait to see those in action. In fact, you can watch a concept video right now.

GPS glasses, WHAA? – Shifting over to Japan, Japanese engineers might have figured out a way to actually let you check your directions and look at where you’re going at the same time. It’s not rocket science really: just use your glasses. After entering your desired destination on the computer (and yes, that is a must), lights on the frame will just tell you which direction to go. It’s pretty basic but it can do wonders! I only hope they come up with a sunglass version, as the current glasses are a little ugly in my opinion.

Sick of cleaning your room? Try this baby! – If your brand-new Roomba isn’t cutting it anymore and you’ve just grown too fat or too lazy to tidy up your room yourself, fear not: the Roboscooper is here to help. This battery-powered robot, brought to you by the same folks who gave us the much-loved Robosapien, can grab stuff as heavy as 1 ounce (alright, that’s not really that heavy but it does the job for paper, cans and whatnot) and drop it in a cargo bay on his back. If something gets stuck, it’ll just ask for help, which might not be the best idea if you’re not home and your room will remain a mess. But it’s an awesome concept nonetheless.

Best. Wristband. Ever. – As we enter this topic I better be as honest as I can: I don’t wear a watch. I just don’t like having a piece of metal and plastic strapped around my wrist almost 24/7. That said, a watch that looks more like a wristband for most of the time unless you actually want to use it is genius. You just tap it to check the time, then you can swipe to scroll through the alarm and a simple timer. Just tap it again and it becomes a regular wristband. It’s available for preorder in white, gray or red for €19. Who can just let this slip by?

$200 lock = PWNED – What happens to a $200 lock at Defcon: it gets broken into. The following video is worth a thousand words:

That’s it for this week guys (and gals). Please reply to this post to let me know what you think of the stories and the format in general as I’m still messing around with it. Also please let me know if there’s any story you’d like me to cover next week.

Until next Saturday, Bye!