The end-of-year holiday is coming up and what has Target got for you? Yep, it’s a special holiday gift card with mini digital camera capability (Yea, the gift card itself is a camera as well, they are not separated). The gift card comes in increments from $50 to $1,000 and the digital camera that is on the gift card will be available at no additional charge. So, if you planned to keep the gift card/camera for some reason and you would also like to spend money on other goodies, then you might want to buy the gift card first and then turn around and spend the gift card yourself.
The digital camera on the gift card runs on two AAA batteries and it comes with 8MB onboard memory with a 1.2 megapixel chip. This probably is not too satisfying for you but look on the better side. Other than the extra camera capability, the combo comes with a USB cord, driver disk, instruction manual and a voucher for 40 free prints from the Target photo center. To top that, this special holiday gift card is like all Target standard gift card too. This means that the gift card will not expire and they can be reloaded in value to be used over and over again.
So what are you waiting for? You won’t be insulted by your loved one or friends that you lack the creativity when it comes to present this time. You may head over to target store and pick up one or you may also purchase one of these gift cards online at Target’s official website. Do note that there’s a $1.95 shipping fee applied for each shipping address receiving a card(s) via standard shipping if you chose to purchase it online.
November 10th, 2008 | Tags: camera, giftcard, holiday, target | Category: Deals | Comments (7)
When Apple’s leading network partners - AT&T chief Ralph de la Vega was asked what the iPhone of the future will be like, he laid out a few not-so-ordinary plans at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco Wednesday (5 Nov, 2008).
Ralph de la Vega, CEO of AT&T’s mobility business had some interesting ideas and here’s a breakdown of what he thinks we’ll see in the future iPhone:
Before the iPhone wakes you up in the morning with its alarm clock, De la Vega says, it will have already loaded all of your daily news feeds onto the phone. It will also have already sent a wireless message to your coffee maker to get the coffee ready. While you’re sitting there drinking your coffee, he says, you might decide that you’d rather read your news on the TV screen; so with a wave of the device toward the TV, de la Vega says, you’ll send your news feeds wirelessly from the phone to the TV for reading.
Now you leave the house, and use your iPhone to lock the door on the way out. You get in the car. The iPhone starts your car. On the way to work, the iPhone continues reading your news to you using its text-to-speech function.
Later on, at your office, the iPhone initiates a conference call between you and two potential customers in Japan. On the call, when you speak English, the iPhone translates it to Japanese so that your potential customers can understand you. When they answer in Japanese, the iPhone converts their speech into English so you can understand them.
I believed that this kind of add-ons are not too complicated. For example, adding RFID to the handset will enable the iphone to act as wireless key for house or cars, and technology to send information to the TV can be easily done too. But is it worth the extra cost to have these extra features embeded into the iphone? I don’t know, maybe we might see them in the future, or maybe not.
Source: PCWorld.com
November 9th, 2008 | Tags: AT&T, feautres, iphone, phone | Category: Random | Comments (7)
Your inbox has a slightly new look. If you are a hotmail user who liked the classic hotmail interface, you will noticed that it’s not possible for you to use the classic hotmail interface anymore. Microsoft decided to ditch the option to switch between the “classic” and “full” mode because they claimed that the new interface will be better in terms of features and performance when compared to the classic hotmail.
Microsoft’s decision in forcing all their hotmail users to convert to the new live mail interface resulted in large numbers of angry users complaining online. “Most of the complaints stem from the revamped look and feel of Windows Live Hotmail, which Microsoft started to unveil Sept. 22. The new interface does away with what had been two options: the years-old “classic” interface and a newer “full” interface that was first offered in 2006. Instead, Microsoft tossed those choices in favor of an interface that merged elements of both, and that the company claimed was much faster to render in a browser.”
“It’s a big step backwards,” said a user identified as “Dave the Red” in a message from late October on a Microsoft support newsgroup. “I want my old Hotmail back!!”
“Don’t like it!!! Don’t like it!!! Don’t like it!!!” added an anonymous user in a comment posted yesterday to a short Microsoft FAQ on the new interface. “Everything seems to take up more space on the page. I feel like I’m looking at a book in large print for old folks! Please put it back the way it was!”
Continue reading…
November 8th, 2008 | Tags: classic, email, hotmail, interface, microsoft, windows live mail | Category: News | Comments (3)
YouTube - video sharing website where users can upload and share their 10-minutes video clips is looking ahead to bring their user full-length movies. “YouTube will begin offering feature films produced by at least one of the biggest Hollywood movie studios possibly as early as next month, according to an executive with a major entertainment company.”
“We are in negotiations with a variety of entertainment companies. Our goal is to offer maximum choice for our users, partners, and advertisers.” Google has been negotiating various major film companies about launching an ad-supported streaming movie service for the past few months. “[I]t’s going to happen. I would say you can expect to see it, if all goes well, sometime within the next 30 to 90 days,” said one of the execs with knowledge of the negotiations.
The move to bringing YouTube users full-featured film could signal that the original 10 minutes short video clips that we have been seeing for the past few years hasn’t yielded much in the way of profits. So, Google is looking for alternate ways to make more profits by looking into film companies and movie studio, in hope to bring a different form of streaming experience to its users and hopefully widen their user base.
There’s no information on what forms the ad unit is expected to be in yet, ”whether it’s prerolls or postrolls or something else–but said some of the studios want the final say on how to advertise to viewers.”
In my opinion, I think that featuring full length film is really great (to us as viewers). More free content to the users is always good, but how effective will Google’s advertising strategy be? I know for sure that I won’t look at those ads and will normally close any ads that pop up right away. So, advertising, whether they are prerolls, postrolls or overlay will not work on me. What about you? Do you look at ads? Will you click on ads?
Source: News.Cnet.com
November 7th, 2008 | Tags: ads, film, google, movie, stream, youtube | Category: News | Comments (2)
Ever want to interact with your computer just by waving your hands in front the screen? Ya, like Tom Cruise in the film Minority Report if you know what I am talking about (continue reading for the short clip). Apparently Mgestyk came out with technology to let you do just that. “It lets you control games and other applications just by moving your hands, allowing for more natural and immersive interaction.”
I know this kind of technology is in the market for some time already, but Mgestyk claimed that they have something different from others. Several of the advantages they mentioned include:
Mgestyk gestures are processed in 3D, meaning that even depth-based gestures (like for controlling the throttle of a plane) are natural and responsive to use.
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Mgestyk works even in total darkness - no need to redo your interior lighting.
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You do not need to keep your hands in front of a specific background with Mgestyk. In fact, people can move around behind you without affecting processing.
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Mgestyk can detect hand gestures without requiring you to hold up specific objects, wear gloves, use colored tape on your fingers etc. - all you need is your hands!
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Mgestyk can easily be set up to control any Windows-based game or application. You do not need to wait for developers of a game to implement gesture support.
Read on for more info and videos.
Continue reading…
November 6th, 2008 | Tags: gesture, mgestyk, minority report, mouse, webcam | Category: Random | Comments (4)
“Employers are checking job applicants’ profiles on sites like Facebook, Brightfuse and LinkedIn, according to a recent CareerBuilder.com survey.” I have seen several other similar studies before this that draws more or less the same conclusion as well. Job interview today is no longer just some plain old rules such as wear your best cloth, show good communication skill and always carry a smile that never fades =) Some employers will also look up job applicant’s online social profile when they are evaluating candidates, and most likely days before you walk in to the interview room. Ever wonder why your employer is already giving you a hard time before they actually interview you?
“Twenty-two percent of employers say they use social networking sites when evaluating job candidates and an additional 9 percent intend to do the same soon. Yet, only 16 percent of workers with social networking profiles have modified their pages with potential employers in mind.”
The reason why they look up candidate’s social profile is because they want to understand more about the people they are going to hire. The company wants to see the “real” person behind the “nicely touch-up” resume.
Continue reading…
November 5th, 2008 | Tags: applicants, career, employer, interview, job, profile, social | Category: Random | Comments (5)
