RT Win a FREE copy of @tyebook and a $50 Olive Garden gift card just for following @freezecrowd and retweeting. Giveaway at 8,888 followers.

Watching the Viinyl presentation @superconf2011 pretty neat, its vision: how songs should be branded... The about.me for songs. Viinyl.com

In Miami Beach, at the @superconf2011 talking to some people about @freezecrowd should be a great event, excellent lineup of speakers!

Great review, I think that it really might give the iPad a run for the money, yet the starting price tag is pretty high, the dual camera is what really is great.

Amplify’d from scobleizer.com

An iPad lovers review of Motorola Xoom

You know I’m an iPad freak. I was first in line to buy one and I’ve used it so much my screen is cracked. It is the device that’s changed my life more than any other in the past year, which, in a year that Microsoft Kinect shipped, is totally impressive. For the past few days I’ve had a Motorola Xoom. I accepted a loaner because I wanted to prove that it would suck next to an iPad. One problem: I’m falling in love with it. With a couple of caveats. First, the caveats: 1. There aren’t any apps that are designed for it yet. I have three “secret” apps that will be out soon, but three goes against, what, 30,000+ for iPad? 2. The iPad 2 is coming, I’ll be at the Apple press conference on March 2. So, those two caveats out of the way, what do I love about it? 1. Some parts of Android are better designed than iOS. Multitasking just seems to work better for me than the way you do it on iOS. In the video I did you see why, it takes fewer clicks to switch apps. 3. Notifications are much nicer on Android. Along the bottom right it shows me when new emails and other things come in. Very well thought out, and way better than notifications on iPad. 4. Battery life seemed equal, although I need more time to really figure out whether it’s as good as the iPad, which has extraordinary battery life. 5. Having cameras on the device is very nice. I used it last night at a discussion at Stanford and I filmed it. Because of the size of the Xoom it came out a lot steadier than anything I film with my iPhones. (This advantage will only last a month or so over iPad 2, but it’s there). I can see using the other camera to do videoconferencing, too. Yeah, it’s not the highest resolution camera you’ve ever seen on a mobile device, but it works pretty well, I’ll try to get a video up tonight from it. 6. HDMI connector. I have an HD screen downstairs. Here I can hook it up without buying a hyper-expensive Apple connector. 7. Better resolution and form factor, especially for video. I love watching video on my iPad. Netflix rocks on it, especially when the kids have taken over my TV set. But I like the higher resolution of the Xoom (1280 pixels across instead of only 1024) and I like the longer and narrower form factor, which fits video better than the iPad does. 8. The widgets on the home screen let me just glance down at my tablet to see info. I now am keeping it on my desk at work as a third monitor and that’s nice. 9. The docking station makes a nice desktop stand. Although it’s a bit weird to figure out how to get the Xoom to dock once you figure that out it makes a nice desktop stand. 10. The browser feels closer to Google Chrome than Safari does. It has one box for URLs and search, which I really love (the two box system Safari has feels lame in comparison) and it has tabs, just like my Chrome does on my desktop. 11. Speaker system in the Xoom is better than the iPad and it has stereo speakers. 13. Gmail, Google Maps, and Google Calendar apps are WAY better than the ones on iPad. As you might expect. So, take this all together and I really love the new Motorola Xoom. I will be buying it because it’s the best of the Android-based devices I have seen and I need one to track all the apps over the next year and compare them to what’s on iPad. That said, will I recommend my dad get one? No. Not this year. Why? No apps that have been specifically designed for the 10-inch tablet, which in my experience does demand new apps. Yes, Android phone apps “stretch” to bigger sizes a lot better than iPhone apps did when stretched up, but sorry we haven’t seen great apps like the History of Jazz, Aweditorium, NPR, BBC, Flipboard, Heritage, etc, like what you see on iPad. The apps are ALL that matters for the market and Android does NOT have them yet. That said, Android is in a better spot than HP’s TouchPad or RIM’s PlayBook, and I believe it will take the #2 spot, mostly because of the strength of its mobile app community on phones. Some other minor nits. I don’t like the surface on the back of the device. It isn’t consistent, which makes part of the back collect more dirt than the strip with the cameras and speakers. Also, the on button is in a weird place. I’ve hit it a couple of times accidentally because it’s where you hold the device with your left hand. Finally, is it worth $800? Not for the mass market due to the lack of apps. If you don’t care about the lack of apps, then yes. It brings Android solidly into the tablet world and brings Apple some significant competition. Can’t wait to see that iPad 2, which will probably change some of these opinions. Read more at scobleizer.com

Brilliant post, gotta love it!

Amplify’d from www.markpeterdavis.com

25 Reasons Why I Think “Modern” Times Are The Stone Age

I still drive my car. I carry things - keys, cash and cards. I need to get my medical reports “faxed”. I age. I plug my computer in. I put effort into exercise. I walk places. I traveled to universities and work. I sleep. I will die. I sit for 6 hours on a flight and write posts like this. I think for my computer. I eat bad food because it tastes better. I meet people by happenstance. I waste resources. I contemplate my family’s safety. I make investment decisions. I make purchase decisions. I know a foreign language. I educate my child. I know people with mental health problems. I know people with diseases. I don’t always know when people are lying. I breathe polluted air, drink impure water and eat contaminated food. I typed this post. Read more at www.markpeterdavis.com

This would be nice.

Amplify’d from chronicle.com

Stanford U. Research Could Eliminate Cellphone Dead Zones

Cellphone dead zones might soon become a thing of the past.

Technology developed by three graduate students in engineering at Stanford University could allow wireless systems, including telephone and WiFi networks, to simultaneously send and receive information, doubling their speed and improving their performance—and keeping them from deafening themselves.

As it is, a signal transmitted on a network to the other is stronger at its point of origin than incoming signals are. In essence, each end of a network is talking so loudly it can’t hear what the other end is saying.

Philip Levis, an assistant professor of computer science and electrical engineering who oversaw the project, says that can create problems for cellphone transmission towers, particularly in remote areas. Companies use cellphone repeaters to extend the range of networks, and often transmit and receive on different channels, but the new technology could be cheaper and more effective, the professor says, reducing cellphone dead zones.

The new technology, developed last winter and spring by Jung Il Choi, Mayank Jain, and Kannan Srinivasan, who were doctoral students at the time, uses strategically placed transmitters and receivers to cancel out the outgoing signals and allow incoming signals to be detected.

The three developed a radio that demonstrates the technology, known as full-duplex wireless, and presented their findings in September at the International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking, or MobiCom. A Nokia researcher at the conference told Mr. Levis it was the best presentation he’d seen in three years.

The professor says improving cellphone service and improving the performance of wireless Internet routers are two of the many potential applications of the technology, which the students are continuing to refine. It’s difficult to say exactly what changes it will bring, he adds, because it represents such a major shift.

“It really breaks this fundamental assumption of how wireless works,” Mr. Levis says. Read more at chronicle.com

Yes, wedding planning, never imagined they'd actually be doing this. Pretty amazing, when will Google be doing my dirty laundry, or my dishes? I think they just about figured it all out. This is really organizing the world's information...

Amplify’d from mashable.com

Google Wants to Plan Your Wedding

Google is taking on an unlikely role: wedding planner.

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Google has rolled out a dedicated site where consumers can create a wedding website, edit photos and plan their wedding using wedding-specific templates in Google Sites, Google Docs and Picnik. The company announced the move today on its official Google blog.

Google teamed up with wedding planner Michelle Rago for the templates, and Rago also provides tips to the soon-to-be-betrothed. To spread the word, Google is also hosting a wedding sweepstakes offering a prize of $25,000 and the chance to get Rago to help plan your wedding.

The site is the latest attempt by Google to insinuate itself into consumers’ lifestyles. In 2008, Google launched Google Health, which is designed to let users organize, monitor, track and use health information on the site. But there’s a thin line between providing helpful information and invading privacy: In 2009, Google Health partnered with CVS to provide patients online access to their prescription drug history via their Google Health accounts, raising issues about Google’s access to sensitive personal information. Read more at mashable.com

This might be Adam Sandler's best appearance ever.

Amplify’d from www.youtube.com

railer 2011

ust Go With It T

Just Go With It Trailer 2011

See more at www.youtube.com

Woke up to chocolate covered strawberries. Tempting, not sure which I'd choose if I could only have the chocolate or the berry, both good.

3D printers are awesome, just wish they could print more awesome things...

Amplify’d from www.psfk.com

MIT’s 3-D Printer Produces Functional Flute

The MIT Media Lab used its Objet Connex500 3-D printer to produce an (almost) concert-quality flute. As seen in the video linked below, four pieces of three different hardness are printed simultaneously in a 15-hour process, with the flute’s metal springs added by hand later. A classical musician tests out the printed flute and, aside from a few buggy pad seals and mouthpiece, gives the instrument a good rating for quality. The flute project is to test the printer’s ability to reproduce fine instruments before being used to create fanciful musical instruments never heard or seen before as shown at the end of the video.

See more at www.psfk.com