news

Google street view NZ

Tue, 2 Dec 2008 07:16:36 +1300

Google Street View for NZ: Google has just announced the launch of Street View on Google Maps in New Zealand: Street View is a new feature for Google Maps that lets internet users view and navigate 360 degree street-level imagery of New Zealand's cities, towns, regions and remote areas. (Check out the video at that link). Dragging the yellow Street View pegman onto any point on a public road shown in Google Maps will bring up an image of the surroundings from a street-level vantage point, letting people check out a restaurant before arriving, arrange meeting points, save time at open houses on Saturday mornings, or just explore parts of New Zealand they haven't visited before.
More than 100 metropolitan areas in six other countries around the world are presently visible in Street View, which first launched in the United States in May 2007.
Tourism New Zealand has selected a gallery of Street View images, that showcase some of New Zealand's best tourist attractions and locations to the world.
Welcome to Macintosh: The producers of the Mac documentary Welcome to Macintosh have announced the DVD has been mastered and sent off for mass production for DVD release on December 15.
The documentary has already made showings at five film festivals. It "mixes history, criticism and an unapologetic revelry of all things Apple." Jobs and Woz aren;t in it, but important figures in Mac history are in the film like Mac engineer Andy Hertzfeld, former Apple Evangelist Guy Kawasaki, and Ron Wayne, a short-lived but original co-founder of Apple Computer, do appear.
Unibody laptops showing ‘black screen’: Apple has acknowledged a major video-related problem with some of the new MacBooks. The issue, known as the ‘Black Screen of Death,’ occurs when the graphics processor comes under heavy load. The symptoms reportedly include system lock-up, video turning off, and audio looping, all at the same time. According to one Apple Support site poster, the problem is already known to Apple so hopefully some kind of fix is being developed.
Intel questions the point of NetBooks: the chip maker’s vice president of sales and marketing, Stu Pann, told an IT conference last week that the company had anticipated that the low cost, small form factor notebooks would find a market in developing countries, but the bulk of sales have been in Western Europe and North America.
“We view the Netbook as mostly incremental to our total available market,” Pann said. More at MacUser UK.
Looking for Mac peripherals? Macworld has posted an article looking at peripherals. If you’re thinking of treating yourself for Christmas ...
D-link adds USB sharing to routers: D-Link has released new firmware for its Green series of Wi-Fi routers that enables users to share USB devices.
Once the SharePort firmware is installed, USB devices such as printers or hard drives can be connected to the USB ports in the company’s DIR-655 and DIR-855 routers.
The future is Solid State Drives: leading producers of the solid state drives (SSD) that Apple offers as an alternative to the traditional hard drive in its MacBook Air and Pro notebooks have begun production of twice the capacity drives.
Gibson makes Mac guitar: legendary electric guitar maker Gibson has unveiled the next generation computer guitar, the Dark Fire. In addition to its ability to auto-tune itself, the Dark Fire can also connect to your Mac via FireWire and soon wirelessly over Bluetooth. Read more at Macworld.

Futurology 70: robots, slugs and space sugar

Mon, 1 Dec 2008 07:09:43 +1300

Virtual ice learning: Stuff reports that Christchurch-based Learnz team members Darren Atkin and Charmaine Nelson are at Scott Base for two weeks filming and photographing the great southern continent, taking New Zealand children on virtual field trips.
They hold live audio conferences with schools twice a day and upload diaries, videos and photographs on to their website each night.
[Comment: a very safe way to learn about a dangerous place]
Putting cemeteries to work: in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, a, working-class town outside Barcelona, solar panels have been placed atop mausoleums at its cemetery, transforming the place of perpetual rest into one buzzing with renewable energy.
Flat, open and sun-drenched land is so scarce in Santa Coloma that the graveyard was just about the only viable spot to move ahead with its solar energy program.
Wired says the power from the 462 panels produces enough yearly energy for 60 homes and flows into the local energy grid.
[Comment: local authorities sold the idea with care and respect for the dead paramount]
Pregnancy could extend life: researchers found that two fly genes, known as magu and hebe, are responsible for causing older female flies to continue laying eggs. And they noticed that when those genes go into overdrive, they extend the natural life span of the flies by up to 30 percent.
IO9 says humans have a similar gene – SMOC2 – to the magu gene, so it's possible these findings will be relevant to humans as well. Scientists already know of reliable ways to make genes over-express ... it’s possible the phenomenon is related to the creation of stem cells, which keep cells young.
[Comment: women already usually outlive men already]
26 handmade Chinese automata: despite only having a primary school education, Wu Yulu’s fascination with robots has inspired him to create 26 automata. His robotic rickshaw, Wu No. 25 (pictured above), can pull an individual through the streets of China’s Beijing region for up to six hours on a single charge. IO9 has more, including footage.
[Comment: in the clip, which shows many other robots, Wu explains his fascination]
Astronaut invents space drinking device: Endeavour astronaut Don Pettit has invented a zero-gravity cup that wicks liquids along the sides of a piece of folded plastic, eliminating the need for a straw.
Liquids typically form spherical blobs in weightlessness, so astronauts drink from sealed pouches using straws. Pettit, a huge coffee fan, didn't like sucking his coffee through a straw so created the cup from a sheet of transparent plastic used in overhead projectors by folding it into the shape of an aeroplane wing and taping it into place, says Reuters. The self-described tinkerer served as the space station's flight engineer in 2003.
[Comment: now they can drink their recycled urine properly]
Giant mystery sea creature with elbows: a remote-controlled underwater vehicle exploring the area around an oil platform for Shell Oil off the coast of Mexico met a strange giant sea creature about two kilometres below the surface. With ten legs dangling from what look like elbow joints, it was a pretty shocking sight to the vehicle operators. You can see the footage at IO9.
Called Magnapinna, these relatives of the squid have only been spotted a handful of times by vehicles like the one that recorded it here. They can grow to about 10 metres in length and have 10 long legs (squids have 8 short legs and 2 big tentacles).
[Comment: the vehicle operators captured this footage a year ago, and passed it around via email until somebody explained what it was]
The decline of America: this year even the most conservative elements of the US government have predicted the decline of the US.
The newly-released four-yearly report is called "Global Trends 2025: A World Transformed". In it the National Intelligence Council predicts that when the quarter-century rolls around, the power of Western-style democracy may have declined. IO9 says the outcome of this shift is murky, but one thing seems clear. Governments will be playing a greater role in steering economies.
[Comment: another Rome: another grand shabby decline]
Solar powered sea slug: a slug is already using the power of the sun directly to create energy. The leafy green E. chlorotica sea slug uses plant genes to generate its own photosynthesis factory after eating a certain kind of algae. It can live entirely on solar power for up to a year.
The creatures incorporate genes they eat, but their genomes contain plant genes already – IO9 notes that means these slugs have been swapping genetic material with algae for a long time.
This is not the only kind of sea slug that can live on solar power, either. There are a few other varieties. All of them have borrowed genetic material from the plants they eat.
[Comment: gives you a small glow, doesn’t it?]
Sweetness in space: a simple sugar that is an ingredient of life has been found for the first time in a relatively hospitable part of the galaxy.
As molecules go, glycolaldehyde is not an impressive one, but its link to the origins of life make it significant. Spectral comparisons have shown that the molecules form on tiny grains of interstellar dust in a region dense with newly formed stars.
[Comment: life is sweet]

Apple discounts

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 07:17:49 +1300

Apple discounts: the Black Friday sales are under way and there are some discounts on Apple products, but they are inconsistent. For example, save $30 on a 500GB Time Capsule but $31 on the 1TB Time Capsule. But the discount on the 20-inch iMac is $81 and you get a respectable $180.99 off the new 13-inch MacBook.
Over at TotallyMac, the products on sale keep changing but I noticed especially games for under $20, that’s pretty good.
Apple 24-inch display first look: Ars Technica takes a new 24-inch LED MacBook display from unpack to turning it on, saying “Sorry, it’s very shiny.”
Ars’ Clint Ecker also says “The real nicety of the display is that Mac OS X knows when you have attached the display to use its integrated devices. That is, when you've hooked it all up, it will use the iSight in the display instead of the notebook's, and it will use the USB audio on the display and disable the output on the notebook. That is, until you plug a set of headphones into the port on the notebook, at which time the display's speakers will disable and route the audio directly to your ears automatically.”
AVLAbs recorder on sale in New Zealand: AVLabs Music Studio (pictured above) is an easy-to-use device that records directly from a home stereo to computer, allowing you to save and restore your classic music collections in high fidelity.
Users can connect any analogue or digital device – a microphone, LP player, cassette deck, camcorder, gaming console or DVD player, to their Mac through the Music Studio to turn their computer into a powerful recording device. Available from early December fro $149.95. (It also works on PCs.)
Seagate 1.5TB drive bug fix: Seagate on Wednesday said it has fixed a bug affecting some Seagate Barracuda hard drives that caused applications to pause. The bug resulted in the company’s 7200.11 1.5TB hard drives hanging at certain times, which led to problems like pauses in video streaming applications. It also led to a failure to recognise drives in certain configurations.
If these problems have effected you, Seagate asks that you send the company an email describing the problems and system information, OS and the application in use when the issues arose.

Don’t forget the sales!

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 18:45:01 +1300

Sales: don’t forget Apple’s so-called ‘Black Friday’ sale this Friday 28th – and I know it’s not Friday 13th. Check at www.apple.co.nz – but others are offering some great prices too as this annual US tech sale tradition, linked to Thanksgiving, arrives in NZ for the first time.
For example, starting Friday 28th November 12:01AM, the Central North Island mail-order Authorised Apple Reseller TotallyMac is also having a huge, one-day sale.
Prices will be up to 50% off a range of products, with one or two items as much as 70% off.
Products will be randomly changing in our sale throughout the 24hr period, so check he TotallyMac sale page regularly. Product is only on sale while it is displayed on this page, and orders can only be placed online.
There is limited stock of sale products.. No backorders will be taken.
There will be a link from the TotallyMac home page to the sale page once the sale has started.
Note that TotallyMac is a reputable mail order store with a good history and I have used it often.
What’s on sale? I don’t know, sorry. Going by experience, don’t expect big discounts on Apple products because their margins are pretty tight, so there’s little to cut, but I honestly don’t know as this has not happened here before. Wait and see, but if you’re planning on buying anything soon, check some prices out now and see what you can save on the Black Friday Sale.

24 inch becoming available

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 07:17:58 +1300

24-inch monitor becoming available: Apple has just sent out the first wave of shipping confirmation emails for the new 24-inch Apple LED Cinema Display. The LED Cinema Display (pictured above courtesy Apple Inc) is designed to complement the new MacBook/MacBook Pro line with a Mini DisplayPort connector, integrated MagSafe, 3 powered USB 2.0 ports, an iSight camera and built-in speakers.
Apple unveiled the display in October at the same event where it overhauled its entire laptop line.
MacBooks are the only computers on the planet at the moment that can even make use of the new 24-inch, which boats a glossy, widescreen display with 1920 x 1200 pixel resolution.
Small QuickTime update: a new Quicktime Update opens up SD Video on external DisplayPort displays. The bug meant SD video wouldn't display on external displays connected to the new Unibody MacBooks. Run Softwware Update in System Preferences to acquire.
The problem arose because the DisplayPort technology that Apple has adopted includes built-in DRM (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) which restricts playback to HDCP-compliant devices. Currently that is a short list, comprising the Macs’ internal displays and any that are connected directly, rather than via an adapter, to the Mini DisplayPort.
Apple Mail glitch: has anyone else noticed that ig you put a hyphen in the subject line in Mail, it doesn’t send? I have noticed this on two different machines.

Apple’s Christmas sale

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 07:11:11 +1300

Apple’s one-day pre Christmas online sale: Apple is running it’s one day sale this year on Friday – go to Apple online on Friday if you want some better deals than usual.
Epson’s new Italian styed multifunctions: with external design by the noted Italian industrial design team Castiglione Morelli of Milan, these two new piano-black premium performance printers offer high end features including wireless connectivity, touch panel display, high resolution scanning and ultra-fast high definition printing.
The Epson Stylus Photo TX800FW is $499 RRP inc GST and the Epson Stylus Photo TX700W costs $399 RRP inc GST. The Epson Stylus Photo TX700W is available at consumer electronics retailers, computer superstores, mass merchants and office superstores from November.
The Epson Stylus Photo TX800FW can be bought from Harvey Norman only until January, then will be available from all usual Epson stockists. To find out more, click on ‘A new statement in design’.
Sonnet savings: Sonnet Technologies today announced price drops for the company’s Fusion F2 portable two-drive RAID SATA storage systems. The compact Fusion F2 is the fastest storage solution of its kind, delivering unparalleled performance with up to 134 MB/sec read and write sustained data transfer rates.
Sonnet has cut the price of the Fusion F2 1TB model by over $400 US, and the Fusion F2 640MB price by US$200. Check at MacSense for NZ pricing.
Green MacBooks in ad campaign: Apple has debuted a new ad campaign showing off the new MacBooks' environmental friendliness. But Greenpeace is still saying Apple could do better and that other electronics companies have a better record than Apple.
Safari update: out there on the net they’re saying the bug-fix Apple Safari update released yesterday has made the browser a lot faster. Run Software Update in System Preferences to get the boost.
Safari 3.2’s anti-phishing features are discussed here, btw.
Mac buyers’ guide: Macworld has followed its iPod Buyers’ Guide with one covering the Mac models. It specifically adresses issues for switchers from PC, too. Sharpen your options for Friday’s sale ...
Camera Raw updates from Adobe: Adobe Systems has released an update to its Camera Raw plug-in for Photoshop. Available for free download from Adobe’s Web site, the new plug-in is version 5.2. Adobe has also updated its DNG Converter software to 5.2.

Battery out, performance down

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 07:11:26 +1300

MacBook doesn’t like the battery being removed: if you want to run a new unibody MacBook with the battery removed, the performance suffers considerably. For some strange reason, Apple's notebooks take a rather substantial performance hit whenever the machines do not have batteries installed.
A 2.53 GHz MacBook Pro running on A/C power and without the battery installed received a 37 percent lower score on the Cinebench R10 test suite. 37 percent. Read all about it at Ars Technica.
Macworld Conference details emerge: IDG World Expo on Monday offered details on some of the speakers that will be featured during Macworld Conference & Expo 2009, from January 5-9, 2009 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California, reports IDG magazine Macworld.
Macworld iPod buyers’ guide: which iPod is right for your budget and your loved one before Christmas? Christopher Breen makes it easier for you to decide.
Battlestations Midway review: Battlestations Midway, the World War II simulator of the Pacific Theatre from Pearl Harbour to the dynamic battle at Midway, lets you you can command ships and pilot aircraft. Read Macworld’s review here, which likes the game but not its controls. A screenshot from the review appears above.
NB, mac.nz reviewed Call of Duty: Modern Warfare for Mac (aka CoD4) last week.
DVD ripper Handbrake adds more power: Open Source software Handbrake now accepts just about any type of file for input, from DIVX AVI's, WMF's to ASF files. You'll need VLC as well, to natively encode DVD files. Read more at 9to5Mac; you can download Handbrake for Intel or PowerPC.
Total Media Convertor: Aimersoft has released Total Media Converter for Mac. It costs US$49 and allows you to rip DVD movies and convert video clips to various video and audio formats. You can convert MKV and WMV files and make video files that are playable on the iPod, iPhone, PSP, PS3, Apple TV and other devices. The software also supports HS video formats and requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later, 2.1GHz or faster (PowerPC or Intel) and 512MB RAM.

Futurology 69: rats, aliens, Swedish data paradise

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 07:07:19 +1300

Universe teeming with life? the search for life on other planets has focused on finding worlds just like ours: rocky and covered in liquid water. But as astronomers are learning more about exoplanets, some are beginning to suspect life can evolve under a wider range of conditions. Far from being unique, Earth could be just one world in a universe teeming with truly diverse breeds of life.
Astronomers have long referred to regions of space where conditions are favourable for life as the Goldilocks Zone, but now many astronomers are expanding their definition of habitability, says IO9.
[Comment: how about rats?]
Rats back in Hamelin: the Pied Piper could be called back to Hamelin, northern Germany – the rats are back.
The BBC says an abandoned allotment site on the edge of town has become a haven for rats, with plenty of discarded food and rubbish lying around.
According to legend, in 1284 Hamelin – called Hameln in Germany – was infested with rats but a Pied Piper lured them out of town by playing a pipe.
Since he wasn’t paid, he later lured the children out too – but the town still celebrates the tale.
[Comment: the story is supposed to relate to the real life emigration of Germans to Czechoslovakia in that time, which led to the invention of the Pilsener style of beer there by Germanic descendants]
Google plague tracking: worried about Bird Flu? Black Death (spread by rats ...)? Google may be able to help – doctors are using it to find where flu epidemics are going to strike next.
By tracking the rise in searches on phrases like "cold/flu remedy," Google stated in a Nature article it can predict with almost total accuracy where flu outbreaks are occurring, far more quickly than the American Centers for Disease Control can.
Researchers first looked over the data on where influenza-like illness (ILI) outbreaks took place in the US over the past five years. Then they pored over search data, looking for key phrases that popped up again and again when the outbreaks occurred. You can see a chart of some of the searches that correlated most strongly to a spike in ILI cases on IO9.
[Comment: can it find centres of wellness, too?]
Swedish cave life: a Swedish data storage bunker is so hardened it can withstand an atomic blast, but contains a tiny built-in ecosystem of artificial sun, waterfalls, and plants. It's packed with giant, shiny server cabinets throbbing with data.
[Comment: ‘subterranean data paradise’ pictured above.]
Lab grown faces next: that a team has successfully given a woman a new trachea grown from her own stem cells. For others with damaged windpipes, it promises a future of transplants free from immune-suppressing drugs. Patrick Warnke, a surgeon at the University of Kiel in Germany, is currently working on a way to grow faces from patients’ own stem cells. Four years ago, Warnke was part of a team that created and transplanted a jawbone made from titanium, protein, and stem cells. Read more at IO9.
[Comment: my face looks familiar]
Brain implant brings back speech: a man completely paralysed except for some eyelid movements is speaking again using a computer. Doctors report that he's using a brain implant to control speech synthesising software with his mind.
[Comment: “I’m Carl, a new voice for ... Karl”]
Grow your one Wooly Mammoth: scientists have quite a bit of woolly mammoth DNA lying around, and now science journal Nature reckons it has the resurrection process all worked out. You can read the instructions for yourself at IO9.
[Comment: what does it eat, though?]
Aliens can watch YouTube: when you post that video, it may not just be people in Alaska watching. Last week marked the successful completion of the first test of interplanetary internet, a new communication protocol enabling automatic transmission of data through the far reaches of space.
[Comment: the humans are coming to get you]