Chet Davis - Your Technology Tutor

U.S. Consumers and Navigation Devices

More people use portable navigation devices (PNDs) than in-dash navigation systems, but users of in-dash systems use their system more often, according to a U.S. consumer survey released by Navteq:  Navigation Study: What's Driving U.S. Consumers

Since getting my iPhone I have used the Map function/s several times to help me find a specific location, find a store and even find my way when I needed to see where the closest freeway on-ramp is while coming back from the airport.  Check this previous post for some thoughts I shared about using the included Maps app on my iPhone.

You may also find some value in this post on the 'iPhonNess' website: http://www.iphoneness.com/iphone-apps/10-cool-navigation-apps-for-iphone/

At the Movies: Avatar - An Interesting Article About the Film & It's Director

When discussing popular movies this month, certainly James Cameron's Avatar is to be in the mix. Just  one month after it's release out, Cameron’s sci-fi adventure has drawn in $450.4 million at the domestic box office. Avatar is now #4 on the all-time domestic box-office chart (not adjusted for inflation or higher 3D/IMAX ticket prices). Alt Film Guide website predicts:  It’ll surely be #3 by Monday, ahead of George Lucas' Stars Wars ($460m). Avatar is currently trailing Stars Wars, The Dark Knight, and Titanic

I was catching up on my reading last evening and read an interesting article in the December 2009 issue of Wired Magazine.  Come to find out that the same article is available online here: James Cameron’s New 3-D Epic Could Change Film Forever (Article authored by By Joshua Davis - no relation to yours truly)

Director James Cameron reviews footage on the Avatar set with (from left) actors
Sigourney Weaver, Joel Moore, and Sam Worthington (Photo: Art Streiber)

Samsung launches Blu-ray and HDTV app store

Many folks have heard of the Apps store that you can download applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch.  As of January 2010, there are more than 115,000 3-party applications for these portable media devices.

Well, Samsung is launching their own App store for their Blu-ray. Samsung launching an application store for select 2010 Blu-ray players, HDTVs and home theaters.

The website MYCE (My Consumer Electronics) reported earlier this week that "Samsung’s store is an upgrade to its existing Internet@TV platform, which launched last year as a strip of widgets running along the bottom of the television screen. These included Flickr, Yahoo and others. The new app store will include offerings from Accedo Broadband, AccuWeather.com, The Associated Press, Blockbuster, Fashion TV, Netflix, Picasa, Pandora, Rovi, Travel Channel, Twitter, USA TODAY and Vudu. More apps will be added later this year."

You can see several applications running on the Samsung TV above - these will be available from the Samsung Apps store later this year.

Best of CES (Consumer Electronics Show)

The world's largest trade show for consumer technology just wrapped up it's annual showing in Las Vegas, Nevada.  This year the dominant news coming from the city of bright lights is/was 3D Television (or 3D Home-Theater as the industry is calling it)

You have likely seen the articles in your newspaper, seen news clips on TV and/or read news feeds on the internet.  I share today two different sources for you to receive your inoculation of Technology News. 

My favorite, is this concise summary of CES News is from CNET - they provide a nice 22-minute video sharing their awards, their favorites from CES 2010.  After (or instead of) watching the video - scroll down and you'll see the top picks, by category, of CNET CES Awards for new technology.  Click here to check out the CNET CES Page

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Now, if you wanted to see/learn about everything that showed at the 2010 CES, you would head over to Engadget.  They were named the official blog-partner of the the group that sponsors/puts on CES every year, the CEA (Consumer Electronics Assoc.).

Visit the CES section of the massive Engadget technology/gadget blog site here http://www.engadget.com/ces and you can scroll through copious quantities of technology reviews that were straight from the floor of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

It is helpful that you can view their posts by day (the show ran Tuesday through Saturday) or use the Engadget search tab at the top of the page to read something specific by manufacturer or gadget.

The Mother of all Technology Demonstrations

I think today's article is a great way to close out a year -- by looking back at a fundamental piece of our technological past.

Last week I ran an article highlighting another blogger's 'history of the internet'. A comment inquired why she had not included any mention of what has been called the 'mother of all demos'.

This refers to a public demonstration made in 1968 by a group of technologists at Stanford Research Institute in California. In their 90-minute demonstration the world got their first view of the (computer) mouse, hypertext (which was the impetus for the way your internet browser sees other computers' pages), and more. 

It is very dated but it is an amazing piece of technology history and it is captured on film and is online for us all to view.  If you ponder that this was a little more than 30 years ago it is pretty amazing the advances we have made (and the genius behind these technologies).

From the host website:  The original 100-minute video of this event is part of the Engelbart Collection in Special Collections of Stanford University. This original video has been edited into 35 segments and reformatted as Flash streaming video clips. There is a brief abstract of the subject matter treated in each segment.

You can check out this bit of history here: Doug Engelbart 1968 Demo

Your Most Important Software: Your Web Browser?

By Chet Davis

I read a good article on the Official Google Blog recently that caused me to think about the most important software on our computer/s.  And as Jeffrey Chang, Associate Product Manager, Google Chrome Team and other on-line authors put it... this may very well be your web browser.

It is the web browser that is your conduit, your gateway, your toolbox that allows and facilitates your passage and travel on and around the internet.  And with all the recent developments in on-line tools like the Browser based email, computing in the 'cloud' (Google Apps), On-line Photo Editing & Sharing as well as the growing concern over data and identity security it is perhaps more important than ever to have a updated web browser.


As Jeffrey Chang mentions in his article: "Most browsers have released major updates over the past year, and to ensure your family is getting the most speed and security out of their web experience, you can help your family upgrade to the latest version of Google Chrome, Firefox 3.5, Opera 10, Safari 4, or Internet Explorer 8 — just to name a few modern browsers."

Mozilla Firefox remains my preferred browser -- but I have friends and colleagues who prefer IE (Internet Explorer) and my wife uses Safari.  A few friends have started using Google Chrome as well.

You can read more about the current round of web browser software on this page published by Top Ten Reviews: Internet Browser Software Review
They provide a nice summary and a thorough checklist for the features and benefits available in the most common web browsers.

Photos from Your Smart Phone Make Great Thank You 'Cards'

By Chet Davis

Here's a fun way to use the camera and email functions on your iPhone/Smart Phone!  I have used this recently while my 10-year old son was opening gifts at both his birthday and also at Christmas.  Take a photo of the gift recipient opening their present, or just after they open it (you know, with that cheesy pose) and then email it directly from your phone with a quick, short message that says 'Thanks'

I am not suggesting this necessarily replaces the traditional thank you note/card but it really does make the sender feel a little more like being there when the gift is opened.  The folks I have sent this to say they really appreciated it.

Here is how you would do this on your iPhone.

1. Take the photo (remember to hold your breath - keep the phone/camera as still as humanly possible).  I always take a couple of shots to select from. After selecting the best shot, click to send the photo (on iPhone it is the icon at bottom left corner of any photo). 

2. This opens the 'distribution' menu... I find it easiest to click on 'email photo'

3. This opens up an email message with your photo attached (you'll see it at the bottom of the draft message). Click in the ''To:' field and enter the recipients email address - if they are in your Contacts,  their name will appear, just click to select the proper address.

4. Enter your subject and a brief message and send away.  

Now you've captured a special moment and shared the memory across the miles.  I believe this kind of near instant sharing is one of the highlights of our improved technologies and will become a popular practice in the months and years to come.

Merry Christmas! (with some online holiday fun)

To you and your loved ones I wish a very Merry Christmas!

If you should find yourself with a little time on your hands and looking for some fun online today... here are a couple of suggestions from Your Technology Tutor:

Make A Snowflake

Remember when you were a kid and you would fold up a piece of paper, cut patterns, unfold and then  look at your 'snowflake'?  Well your kids (and you) can do that online without any paper trimming!  Visit the Make-a-Flake website, click on 'Make Your Own Snowflake'. Then maneuver the scissors icon to where you wan to cut... click to begin, then click again and again to make a pattern/cut. Click Preview and your paper will unfold and show your work.  You can even save to the online gallery for other to view.  Cool!

Northpole.com

Here is a website www.NorthPole.com that had more than 10 million visitors last Christmas.  It is a website that first debuted on the Web in 1996.  It's one purpose is "to provide all of our visitors an enriched Christmas experience through a totally child-safe, innovative, imaginative, and yet traditional holiday website"  You and your youngens can click on the different buildings at the 'North Pole' and play a number of different Christmas activities.

101 Christmas 'Classics' Online

Came across this website just this past week, and although it was created some 3 years ago and some of the links to the online videos/movies are dead, there are some fun things to watch all broug

ht together here.  It's a cool list, broken down by different groups of these video shorts (and longer clips) that are found online... here is a sampling of the groups that are listed:

The Essentials

Cartoons

Stop-Motion Animation (Claymation)

Versions of 'A Christmas Carol'

Sitcoms

Music Videos

Christmas 'Radio'

Lastly, here is a link that provides non-stop Christmas music for your holiday enjoyment:

Christmas Radio  Simply click on one of the links (at the right side of the webpage) for the computer  application that you have available to hear Christmas music play from your computer.

The History of the Internet - Condensed (and with cool pics)

By Chet Davis

Thanks to Cameron Chapman at the Six Revisions website we can take a nicely cataloged walk down memory lane... a relatively short memory lane as far as years go -- and if you compare it to other history, but a huge leap back in time in terms of function and capability. 

Cameron's article (originally posted in November of this year) highlights the history of the Internet.  It is a fun glimpse back at some of the foundational moments and developments in that 'thing' many of us use so regularly.

Some of my favorite mentions are the advent of Netscape Navigator in 1994 (picture at left). 

This was not the first but one of the most popular of the new group of software tools that enabled your computer to pull together the code transferred over the internet to make read-able text and images.

I also enjoyed seeing the beta screen of Google way back in 1998 ( way back... wow, that's amazing that Google has become such a powerful force in our society in just 11 years!).

You can read this article (and view the cool screen shots) at the Six Revisions website.

("Six Revisions is a website that publishes practical and useful articles for designers and web developers. We seek to present exceptional, noteworthy tips, tutorials, and resources that the modern web professional will appreciate")

Roger Ebert's List of the best films of 2009

It seems like forever that I have enjoyed and respected the reviews of movie critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times.  I watched many an episode of his program 'At The Movies' opposite Gene Siskel.  I appreciated Roger's reviews as they seemed to direct me towards the movies and films I enjoyed as well.  Just today I came across Ebert's List of the best films from the past year - 2009.  It's even fun to read his introduction as last year he came out with a list of the best 20 films of 2008.  He indicates that he took a lot of flack for that move (ever notice how other folks have their top 100 lists and their top 10 lists?).

This year, Roger Ebert provides us with his picks of the Top 10 Mainstream Films and his Top 10 Indie Films. 

"The lists are divided into Mainstream Films and Independent Films. This neatly sidesteps two frequent complaints: (1) "You name all those little films most people have never heard of," and (2) "You pick all blockbusters and ignore the indie pictures." Which is is my official Top Ten? They both are equal, and every film here is entitled to name itself "One of the Year's 10 Best!" "

You can read the insightful, short reviews for each of the twenty films (or the two lists of ten films) here: Roger Ebert's Journal.

Thanks Roger -- I now have a list of several films to view and to add to my queue in Netflix!