“Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope!” The technology that Princess Leia used to send her distress message in the first Star Wars trilogy is almost here. While Leia’s message was a hologram, the technology in the new Helio Display uses an invisible plane of condensed air. The plane of air catches a projected image where it creates the illusion that the image is three-dimensional. I’m not sure what you might use it for at this point, unless you’ve got any droids that you need safely delivered to Alderaan.
Apple’s Mighty Mouse gets wireless Bluetooth technology and has its tail cut off.
Did you ever bite into a peach expecting a juicy mouthful and instead come up with a bitter hard chunk of flesh? Judging whether or not fruit is ripe may soon be getting a lot easier. University of Arizona professor Mark Riley has invented a sticker that grocery stores can attach to fruit which will change color as the fruit ripens. As fruits and vegetables age, they releases ethylene gas, which the sticker can detect. There are still a few bugs to work out, but if all goes according to plan, the stickers should be appearing in produce departments in two to three years.
Kazaa has agreed to settle its global piracy lawsuits against the RIAA and the entertainment industry, paying out a whopping $115 million in restitution. And record companies love these settlements because they provide no clear accounting method to pay artists what they’re due.
Scientists have found what they were looking for on Saturn’s moon, Titan: lakes. “The discovery was made on July 22, when NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, now orbiting Saturn, did its 16th close flyby of Titan.” This makes Saturn’s moon the only known body in the solar system other than Earth to have lakes on its surface. What are those lakes full of? Titanic aliens, of course.
YouTube may be worth $1 billion, but who will buy it?
Google announced that they would begin providing live traffic information on Google maps for mobile devices. Now, if you can pull up all that information on your phone while driving and avoid getting in an accident, you’re most likely stopped in a traffic jam, so how would it help you anyway?
Last week we told you briefly about the importance of net neutrality. Because we think this is such an important issue (and a somewhat complex one) here’s a short video that explains it. Please watch the video and understand how your rights will be affected.
Viewers of shows recorded on TiVo skip about 70% of the commercials, according to the company’s audience research division. But not everyone is fast-forwarding, and TiVo plans to begin selling research data to advertisers on the quirky commercial-viewing habits of users: “For example, one study for a consumer packaged goods company, which Mr. Juenger declined to identify, found that commercials featuring animal characters, when shown on animal-related programs, were skipped less often than usual.” Researchers found the same trend among gay men when the commercials featured a shirtless Jake Gyllenhaal.
Its name is Zune and what it does exactly is anyone’s guess. But Engadget has a rundown of what are the super secret project’s most likely selling points. It’s being billed as an “iPod killer” because it is rumored use of WiFi means it is a “connected entertainment” device. This means that you’ll be able to download music and entertainment from any WiFi source. As the novelty of the iPod begins to fade, users are looking for a new experience. Is Microsoft up to the challenge with a device that most likely won’t be able to play anything but its proprietary format? And of course, Apple’s probably got a few things up its sleeve as well.
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