Category Archives: Gadgets

Google Glass — Can I Get A Witness?

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Don’t get me wrong, I can’t stand gardening. But the first thing that came to mind when I put on Google Glass was my mother’s organic garden.

You won’t catch me outside in broiling 98-degree southern humidity struggling to hack through a dense, painfully stinging row of okra, or pulling nasty, squirming wormy things off dozens of tomato bushes. No siree! But you will catch my mother doing that crazy stuff. For hours on end, day after day, week after week, throughout the south’s high summer months.

That said, if you can get past the oppressive heat and humidity there really is no more verdant and glorious vision of bounty, robust health and natural beauty than a southern organic garden at its summer harvesting peak.

Thus the thought of me strolling, beatifically wired, through rows of an organic garden in full, wearing a pair of Glass with my mother narrating the purvey and provenance of every lush plant and vegetable, set my pan-media-tuned mind into high and sunny gear.

Who wouldn’t want to document and share that kind of rich media in our connected world? To be fresh content-enabled, breezily so, by merely putting on glasses, something I’ve done every day since I was 7-years old anyway.

One of the great things about living near the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech, of course) is participating in some of the innovations and events churned from there. Whether beta testing products in development, networking, attending concerts or lectures, there’s a wealth of experience and knowledge available to the university’s surrounding community, so last night (July 11) I hopped over to nearby startup nurturer, Flashpoint on West Peachtree Street.

There, Randy J. Mitchell, the founder and CEO of Plisten, along with Google and Hypepotamus, hosted a meetup for Google Glass developers and designers. My friend/mentor and sometime colleague, veteran political reporter Tom Baxter, who’s always up for some new media-creation adventures, tagged along too.

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The Jerboa Audio Speaker. You Know You Want One.

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Yeah they’re cool. Yeah they work very well. Yeah you know you want one. http://jerboaaudio.com/

 

iPhone Apps For Kids Reviewed By A Kid

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My kid has a new blog just for reviewing iPhone apps for kids: Ava Does Apps.

Twittering Through The Big One

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Imagine this scenario… there’s a “real” pandemic and you’re charged with acquiring 5000 laptops for your company so the entire company can work from home – given that the country’s been moreorless quarantined by now. Your people aren’t coming into your company’s physical spaces, your offices or warehouses, sprawled all over the place in 10 different cities.

But wait. Office Depot, and everywhere else for that matter, sold-out of laptops a week ago. Who you gonna call? You’d call Agility Recovery Solutions. They’ve got your laptops. And your servers, your monitors, your workspaces, your cabling, your satellite dishes… all by the truck load. And of course the generators you’ll need to run all that stuff on too. Heck, knowing the good folk at Agility they’ve probably got your coffee hot and ready to go, and already know whether your people take cream or sugar.

But if you are a business continuity manager worth your salary you’d have already established a relationship with Agility Recovery Solutions as part of your disaster relief/business continuity plan, right? Right!

Agilitywarehouse

At their Atlanta facility open house on May 13, 2009, Agility’s Operations Manager, Chandler Smith, told me that he had taken a rather panicky call from someone looking for 5000 laptops during the recent swine flu, er, “media outbreak.” The scenario of needing lots of  temporary gear is not slightest bit far-fetched when people and businesses feel threatened, or are in an actual crisis or disaster-related situation.

Also at the Agility open house yesterday, I spoke with Jeff Jacobson of Oodalink. For my geek pleasure, Jeff demo’d a communications center that fit in a TSA-approved carry-on case. This was a portable, satellite-based, broadband wireless network in a box – complete with battery power. Available from Agility too.

oodalinkpack

The satellite/GPS component in the kit is from Inmarsat, and you can watch a cool video about connecting one of those puppies up here. Easy as pie. Even I could do it… with a couple of years of training. 😉 And by that time, maybe Oodalink will be making the kit in a nice shade of pink too, for a very reasonable price. But I diverge…

A disease-based pandemic may not necessarily impact terestial broadband infrastructure; however, a Katrina-scenario sure can. And who wants to have to stop Twittering in a crisis? Not me!

Traffic Conditions In Atlanta Via Twitter

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Follow atlantatraffic on Twitter for Atlanta traffic updates. Couldn’t we just add the Twitter updates to a GPS somehow and voila… the very best real-time app for Atlanta’s traffic nightmare we’ve all been searching for? (Can you do that now somehow? I don’t have a GPS device in the car. Just Google maps.)

Atlanta traffic incidents and conditions do have a Twitter hashtag and it’s: #atltraffic. I encourage much more use of it!

UPDATE: 9:30am – Right now “Atlanta” is a hot “trending” topic on Twitter. Go figure that. But I bet it has something to do with the saving graces of the Twitter hashtag #atlgas for this here town during our recent gas availability, or lack thereof, issues. People are STILL using that thang. Sanjay adds his thoughts to the ATL gas matter here. I also advise reading anything he has to say on the matter.

Messin’ With Kyte.tv

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I haven’t streamed any video yet to my Kyte.tv channel(s), chiefly because I have an iPhone and iPhones are not video enabled. Will have to borrow my kid’s cell to stream vid using Kyte. But you can send stills via the iPhone. Kyte has more bells and whistles than NASA. Love clickin’ and draggin’? Then Kyte’s for you. My fave Kyte discovery so far? Atlanta rapper David Banner’s live musings.

[kyte.tv appKey=MarbachViewerEmbedded&uri=channels/74017&embedId=37890640]

AJC Shifting Folk Around As LA Times Tries e-Billboards

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I love the e-billboards concept to promote “news product.” As if we weren’t all about to wreck our cars at any moment while texting and drinking coffee and driving…

From the San Antonio Business Journal:

The Los Angeles Times will use the electronic billboards to display exclusive news content from its print and online editions and special editorial features like the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books and the Metromix L.A. events, culture and nightlife guide.

From the Atlanta Business Chronicle:

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is reorganizing its sales and marketing functions, and its advertising vice president and classified ads director are leaving.

The daily newspaper, whose circulation is dropping, said Wednesday it has separated its sales execution and sales operations, promoting Ranald MacDonell to vice president of advertising sales. He’ll be responsible for driving revenue across all advertising categories, the paper said. MacDonell was previously the AJC’s vice president of targeted media.

How about some of those e-boards, eh Ranald (wtf) MacDonell? Give us something to do here in our traffic wonderland that is the ATL.

Congressional Disclosures Just One Click Away

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Find out who’s money is going where, including yours, with this super-duper Member of Congress money aggregating tool, Influence Explorer. Of course you’ll need the magic word to log-in.

Gimme a Shake, Fries, and a Live Stream. Please.

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If you need to send the world your stuff live from your v-enabled phone, here’s the place to do it: QIK

And check out phone-plus-webcam FREE calls here on ooVoo. I love that thing! No overseas service though as I tried to call the U.K. using ooVoo, but no luck there.