alphadogg writes "Google on Monday released a website and video regarding its Solve for X project, which the company says is 'a place where the curious can go to hear and discuss radical technology ideas for solving global problems.' It's got a TED-like think tank feel to it, but possibly with oodles of Google resources behind it. It appears related to Google's up-to-now largely secretive Google X research lab that the New York Times recently shed some light on."
New submitter albinobee writes "The Kinect for Xbox 360 isn't only about gaming; it can also be used to help compensate for impaired vision, as a team of Indian engineers is working to prove. A device called viSparsh, still in its nascent stage, is a motion sensing belt that can help alert the blind to obstacles that lie in their path."
crookedvulture writes "Intel continues to partner with third-party controller makers for high-end SSDs. Its new 520 Series drives pair the latest SandForce controller with Intel's own firmware and 25-nm NAND. HotHardware, Tech Report, and PC Perspective all have reviews of the drive, and the verdict is pretty consistent. While the Intel 520 Series offers slightly better performance than competing SandForce solutions, it also costs 30-40% more. That's a steep margin even considering the Intel SSD's five-year warranty."
Hugh Pickens writes "Anna Leach reports that Siri support has been a contentious issue for owners of earlier iPhones, but a recent filing from Audience shows that Siri won't run on the iPhone 4 because the phone's chip can't handle it. Linley Gwennap of the Linley Group cracked one of the secrets of the new iPhone's A5 chip after working out that it packs some serious audio cleaning power not available on the iPhone 4's A4 chip. Audience has developed technology that removes most or all of the background noise when someone places a cell-phone call from a restaurant, airport, or other noisy location. The iPhone 4S integrates Audience's 'EarSmart' technology directly into the A5 processor, improving its technology to handle 'far-field speech,' which means holding the device at arm's length rather than directly in front of the mouth. Apple has also licensed the Audience technology for a 'new generation of processor IP,' which may mean that the forthcoming A6 processor will appear in the iPad 3 and iPhone 5. 'Why Apple has not simply purchased Audience is unclear. An acquisition would prevent Audience's other major customer, Samsung, from using the technology to compete with Apple,' says Gwennap. 'The company may be hedging its bets, as it could switch to Qualcomm's Fluence noise-reduction technology in the future.'"
Trailrunner7 writes "Adobe, which has spent the last few years trying to dig out of a deep hole of vulnerabilities and buggy code, is making a major change to Flash, adding a sandbox to the version of the player that runs in Firefox. The sandbox is designed to prevent many common exploit techniques against Flash. The move by Adobe comes roughly a year after the company added a sandbox to Flash for Google Chrome. Flash, which is perhaps the most widely deployed piece of software on the Internet, has been a common attack vector for several years now, and the attacks in some cases have been used to get around exploit mitigations added by the browser vendors. The sandbox is designed to prevent many of these attacks by not allowing exploits against Flash to break out into the browser itself."
Movie Studios Jump In Late: Sue LimeWire And Demand Cash From Dead Site Mon, 6 Feb 2012 15:28:26 PST Limewire is long dead and buried as a file sharing platform, and with the companysettlingthe lawsuit filed against it by the major record labels for $105 million (down from the many trillions it had originally said it deserved), you might think that the legal shenanigans were long over. Apparently, someone in the MPAA just woke up to the fact that this might be a way to get some easy cash to pump into its next lobbying campaign, and has just nowsued Limewire as well, demanding cash for any of its files that were traded. Of course, a bunch of indie record labelsalso sued, so it appears that lots of those who chose not to innovate are now trying to feed off of what's left of Limewire's carcass. It does make you wonder, of course, what made the movie studios wait so damn long. Of course, isn't thatjustlike Hollywood? Rather than do something original, it just does a "remake" of something someone else already did?
Tom Brady Watched Last Year's Super Bowl Via Illegal Stream... And Probably Had A Better Experience Than Anyone Watching NBC's Official Stream Mon, 6 Feb 2012 14:24:26 PST With ICEseizinga bunch of websites that were planning to stream this year's Super Bowl, plenty of people had their ears perk up when Patriots starting quarterback Tom Brady admitted that he watchedlast year's Super Bowl via an unauthorized streaming site online. While his view this year was a bit more up close and personal, lots of people were talking about how NBC Universal finally decided to offer up an official stream of the game -- about a decade later than it should have done so. Of course, reports from users were that -- in typical NBC Universal fashion -- theexperience was dreadful. Even more ridiculous? The livestreamdidn't show most of the commercialsbecause apparently NBC Universal wanted them to pay extra to do so. So, instead, those who watched online "received a heavy dose of the same ads over and over again." In other words, the online experience wasworse. Of course, since they have less competition (thank you US government!), NBC has little incentive to improve the product, so expect it to suck for a few more years now that they've finally decided to show the game online.
The NFL Issues Takedown For Chrysler Super Bowl Commercial Mon, 6 Feb 2012 13:21:26 PST Ah, the bogus takedown. The latest is that apparently the NFL somehow and for some reasontook down Chrysler's Clint Eastwood Super Bowl commercial from YouTube. Pretty much every advertiser put up their commercials on YouTube, and it's unclear why or how the NFL might claim any sort of copyright on any of those ads. But, for some time that's exactly what happened, making Chrysler's own website promoting the ad look pretty silly:
Considering how much Chrysler had to pay for that ad, you have to wonder if they now feel that the NFL owes them something for making it impossible for people to watch for a while...
OK Go Shows, Once Again, How Content Is Advertising... And How There Are Many Revenue Streams For Musicians Mon, 6 Feb 2012 12:20:26 PST The band OK Go has made quite a name for itself over the years as a pioneer/innovator in a number of different ways in the music world. The group has become incredibly famous for their videos, each one of which seems to up the difficulty level. Years ago, they had a simple dance video (filmed in one of their backyards, if I remember correctly), which went viral. Then they had the famous dancing treadmill video. There have been a few others, including a massive Rube Goldberg machine, and now they've taken it up a notch with their latest video, which was part of Chevy's Super Bowl commercial for its new Sonic vehicle. They basically used the car -- and a massive amount of setup -- tohave the car help them perform a song:
In case you're wondering, there were 55 pianos, 288 guitars, and 1157 of what they describe as "homemade instruments" to make that one work. Also, the video took four months to prepare and four days to shoot... and all of the car driving is actually done by lead singer Damian Kulash, who actually took stunt driving lessons (kinda neat that he can probably write that off as a business expense...). The video description also notes that "each piano had the lowest octaves tuned to the same note so that they'd play the right note no matter where they were struck." Just in case you were wondering.
Of course, beyond just being kinda cool, this hits on a few points that we talk about regularly. First off, it shows how OK Go has continued to do what it set out to do when itfreed itselffrom its EMI contract. Despite their videos getting millions upon millions of views, EMI was too clueless to know how to actually monetize such success. The band figured it could do a better job itself, noting thatif you have the fans, there are always ways to make money. The band has also been pretty vocal about beingagainstthings like DRM and for things like making iteasierfor fans to get their music. And, here, they're making money by getting sponsors to help them create their crazy music videos. This isn't a first. The big Rube Goldberg video wassponsored by State Farm.
And, no, no one is saying that every band should get corporate sponsorship (though I'm sure some critics will accuse me of saying exactly that!). It's just that there are all sorts of creative ways for artists to make money these days, and getting some corporate sponsorship is one that gets little attention, but has been growingmassivelyover the past few years. In fact, it was one of the key themes at MIDEM this year, including afascinating interview of Mark Ronsonwith Wendy Clark of Coca Cola by Ian Rogers from TopSpin, all about Coca Cola's efforts in the music space.
One of the key things in this is the recognition thatcontent is advertising. Lots of people have recognized the reverse: that advertising is content... but things really open up when you realize that content itself is advertising. And that's something that a lot of brands are recognizing by tying themselves to different content creators, and letting them do cool stuff around their brands. I know that some people find this to be some form of "selling out," but as Ronson points out in the video linked above (and, as I'm sure the folks in OK Go know well) that's pretty silly. Most consumers today know that artists need to make money, and as long as the brand gives them the freedom to be who they are and do what they do, most fans have no problem with these kinds of deals.
