Apple's new iPhone.

Someone’s in trouble. Picture yourself being trusted to test the new iPhone. Then you head to a bar in Redwood City, get ham-boned and forget your phone. Whoops. What’s the worst that could happen?

Gizmodo getting their hands on it would probably rank high among the worst-case scenarios for Steve Jobs. Somebody’s in trouble.

Complete with secretive X's and such.

There are several new features, mainly regarding design — it’s now squared instead of curved — and the camera, volume control, etc.

From Gizmodo (read the whole article with more pics here):

What’s new

• Front-facing video chat camera
• Improved regular back-camera (the lens is quite noticeably larger than the iPhone 3GS)
• Camera flash
• Micro-SIM instead of standard SIM (like the iPad)
• Improved display. It’s unclear if it’s the 960×460 display thrown around before—it certainly looks like it, with the “Connect to iTunes” screen displaying much higher resolution than on a 3GS.
• What looks to be a secondary mic for noise cancellation, at the top, next to the headphone jack
• Split buttons for volume
• Power, mute, and volume buttons are all metallic

What’s changed

• The back is entirely flat, made of either glass (more likely) or ceramic or shiny plastic in order for the cell signal to poke through. Tapping on the back makes a more hollow and higher pitched sound compared to tapping on the glass on the front/screen, but that could just be the orientation of components inside making for a different sound
• An aluminum border going completely around the outside
• Slightly smaller screen than the 3GS (but seemingly higher resolution)
• Everything is more squared off
• 3 grams heavier
• 16% Larger battery
• Internals components are shrunken, miniaturized and reduced to make room for the larger battery

The “Will It Blend” iPad edition.

]]> http://internwhisperer.com/645/will-it-blend-ipad-edition/feed/ 0 http://internwhisperer.com/490/avatarsnot-big-and-blue-but-pretty-cool/ http://internwhisperer.com/490/avatarsnot-big-and-blue-but-pretty-cool/#comments Wed, 24 Mar 2010 20:20:44 +0000 sarah http://internwhisperer.com/?p=490

Sigurdur Orn's MeBot

Who wouldn’t love to have a likeness of yourself to take care of boring business while you sit in your pjs and eat poptarts?  The technology is out there.  Telepresence robots are on the rise, and may be taking over the work world. Okay, that may be exaggerating, but it’s still a cool concept.

MIT student Sigurdur Orn has unleashed an interesting little bot called the Mebot, that features expressive gesture abilities which Orn is calling “socially embodied communication.”

The robot was debuted at the Human-Robot Interaction Conference in Oskaka, Japan.   It has a little screen that sits on a moving neck.  This screen displays the user’s face.  The robot also has two moving arms as well.  To top it off, the robot also has a wheeled base, which allows it to move about.  Although this little thing looks like some sort of strange alien bug person,  these moving parts help to convey user expressions to the other party.

Maybe these avatars are the future of business, but for now, your best bet for success is still face to face contact (for those of you who didn’t learn this lesson from Up in the Air).

Rocketman. This could be you.

So you want a jetpack. Get in line. Now you can get one. If you have $86,000, that is.

Martin Aircraft, a New Zealand-based company that has been working on their jetpack since 1998, have announced they finally have a version stable and safe enough to sell commercially as well as for private use.

That’s it really. Jetpacks. They’re legit now.

Facebook stalking just got literal! Wee!

Facebook is set to “let” users publish their location, just as you and 400 million other users update your status, photos, Farmville fences and chickens, etc. Remember that privacy policy update back in November? Well, pay attention to this line:

“When you share your location with others or add a location to something you post, we treat that like any other content you post.” It’s unclear as of now how much control users will have in how location information will be published. There will be location features directly through Facebook, as well as through third-party developers with Facebook’s API.

Basically: Facebook wants to start to compete with Google for small, targeted local business advertising. And they’re willing to jeopardize your privacy, much less your safety, to do so. The feature is expected to be rolled out in April after f8, Facebook’s annual conference.

Hey, Twitter! I'm away from home, come take my stuff!

If Please Rob Me based on Twitter’s API is any indication of the good things to come, Facebook’s location tool should be just dandy.

Remember that one creepy guy from high school that friended you even though you haven’t spoken to him ever or laid eyes on him (intentional or not) in years?! Well now, instead of simply stalking you via your Spring Break photo albums, he can just come on down to the beach with his X-ray binoculars and piano wire! Thanks Facebook!

Prezi - Powerpoint killer? *fingers crossed*

For the sake of keeping things relevant, this post is about a presentation website that will make all of your future employers think that you are much more impressive than you will ever deserve. This website/software is called Prezi and uses a type of flash-esque [It's called Javascript, Ben -Ed.] technology to make your business proposals way more creative and ornate than they actually are. If you go to Prezi’s website, you’ll see why it’s so effective. I call it the Michel Gondry effect, where you stare at something seemingly simple, tilt your head, and think “how does that even happen?” It’s awesome.

Okay. Now that that’s established, the REAL reason why I am commenting on this wildly convenient website is because on the homepage of Prezi there is a man who gives a short video presentation of Prezi’s capabilities. Watch it and share my embarrassment for the poor man. As interns, people are going to ask you to do things that you don’t want to do. Sometimes it’s walking in the cold to the FedEx on 5th avenue. Sometimes it’s going to be going to Bed, Bath, and Beyond and getting a quote on doorknobs for the female bathroom.

It should never be humiliating yourself over the internet [I beg to differ -Ed.]. If you can’t read a teleprompter and you don’t know how a green screen works, let your boss know. If they are at all the kind of group of people who you want to eventually work for, they’ll understand.

Don’t make the same mistake that the Prezi man-boy made. Or DO make the same mistake that the Prezi man-boy made, and let us know about it so that I can write about it. Being an intern should be a learning experience. If you can make your mistakes public so that the rest of us can learn from it, we’re all better off. Thanks for the martyrdom Prezi.

Enjoy a Prezi demo from a 9-year-old cos why not?

ShadyURL: Shorten and sketch-out your links!

How do you shorten links for sharing on Twitter, your blog, or elsewhere? Think HootSuite is the bee’s knees? Are you more of a TinyURL traditionalist? A crunchy Bit.ly enthusiast?

If you’re interested in getting “meta” and sardonically teasing your web-friends, give ShadyURL a try.

Would you rather click on:

http://ow.ly/1bjNp

-or-

http://5z8.info/stalin_n1w1g_how-to-skin-a-gerbil

Exactly.

iPad. Whoop-dee-doo.

Steve jobs unveiled apple’s new product the ipad in San Francisco this week. Although apple is calling it “magical” and “revolutionary.” I cant help but think this device looks like an old wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Back in 2007, Apple launched a little game-changer called the iPhone, which offered consumers a touch pad phone and computer all in one tiny package — revolutionary stuff there. It was user friendly, looked cool and soon enough everybody and their mom had one.

Although the iPad does have some cool features like a 10+ hr battery life and an iTunes style bookstore, it also has a lot of flaws. It can’t multitask, so if you want to listen to music and browse the web, you’re out of luck. It also doesn’t have GPS, or a camera.
From what I gather, the iPad is an oversized, stripped down iPhone without the phone. Yeah it has a full size keyboard, but is it really worth $599 for a 32 GB iPad when a 32 GB iPhone is $299?

The iPad is set to hit Apple stores in April. There are already rumors of a more MacBook-like version set to succeed the iPhone-like iPad. Is this another game-changer from Apple? What’s the value of cornering the netbook market — the small, niche netbook market?
13 Things You NEED To Know About The iPad

Hiyoooo!

iPad.

It’s official. Steve Jobs has announced the new Apple iPad.

“It’s so much more intimate than a laptop and so much more capable than a smartphone,” Steve Jobs said. Follow the Apple event on the LA Times blogs here.

Jobs is saying the iPad is eco-friendly, mercury and arsenic free. More details to come…

UPDATE: From Gizmodo — some tech specs:

-9.7″ screen

-1Ghz “Apple A4″ processor

-Wi-Fi only, no 3G support from AT&T or Verizon

-10-hour battery life

-Can “decode” HD video to play without reducing battery life

-Includes Bluetooth 2.1, microphone, speaker, accelerometer (really?) and compass (really really?)