micronavigators.com » Technology Trends

Do You Know Anyone Still Not Using The Internet?

gadgetHead — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:40:47 +0000

For those of us in the tech industry, it’s hard to believe that anyone isn’t online in one fashion or another. But if you look closely at your own family and friends, you will probably find someone who still doesn’t use the Internet regularly – or even at all. CNET has posted a great video about the 5 reasons people don’t use the Internet. If you want to better understand the remaining holdouts be sure to check it out.

Skype Joins The World Cup Party With Free Phone Calls For A Month

gadgetHead — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 16:13:35 +0000

Skype is jumping on the World Cup marketing bandwagon by offering free land-line phone calls for month in several countries across the globe. If you have friends or family in other parts of the world you may want to take advantage of this offer and save a few bucks on your international phone charges. Check out the countries available and the specifics of this deal at gizmodo.com

Avoiding The Roadside Tourist Trap

gadgetHead — Tue, 25 May 2010 17:50:27 +0000

This upcoming summer, if you plan on taking a vacation or two, make sure you don’t find yourself with an armload of junk from with the name of the amusement park or oddities museum your kids made you visit. The “World Touristiness Map” may save you aggravation – and money – this summer by helping you avoid the most “touristy” places on the planet. This Google Maps mash-up has analyzed images from photo site Panoramio.com to help you avoid those places overcrowded by your fellow main. To find a great location that’s not overrun with khaki shorts and Hawaiian shirts take a look at this great use of Google Maps via Lifehacker.com.

Is The Future Of Gaming On The iPhone?

gadgetHead — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 18:22:17 +0000

I was surprised to learn that the iPhone is the fastest growing gaming platform in the world. Of course most of the games people are playing on the iPhone are digital versions of classic board, card, and strategy games and not the one’s you’ll find on your Xbox 360 or PS3. But the type of games you’ll find on the Nintendo DS or Playstation Portable are making their way to our mobile phones. Gaming blog Kotaku.com takes a look at what the upcoming iPhone 4 may mean for mobile gamers.

Get Ready for the 12 Megapixel Cameraphone

gadgetHead — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:51:48 +0000

Engadget.com reports that LG mobile has confirmed that a 12 megapixel phone will soon be produced. Sony Ericsson was the first to demonstrate they could put a 12 megapixel camera in a phone, but LG is the first provider to officially announce one is coming. Don’t get too excited, though, as LG’s UK head of marketing, Jeremy Newing, admitted, “it’s important that people realize when taking 12mp images, they’ll be using huge amounts of data, and it will be more difficult to do things like send such files”. Plus, as lifehacker.com has pointed out, megapixel size is not directly proportional to picture quality. While you’re waiting for over an hour for your phone to send that picture of a daisy to your mom, don’t expect the end result to look nearly as good as your DSL with less megapixel resolution but far superior optics and sensors.

Kindle 2 Still Too Expensive?

gadgetHead — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 20:36:10 +0000

Despite all the hype, at $360 the upcoming Kindle 2 is still going to inhabit a very small niche market. Of the 50% of Americans who read books at all very few are ready to make a digital switch. Just like the visceral pleasure we experience from holding a newspaper keeps them in print, a fair amount of the literary class enjoy perusing a bookstore, reading back flaps and skimming contents. But for those who are ready to adopt the digital model, the Kindle itself, or even Sony’s $300 Reader Digital Book, are not the only game in town. A more affordable option may be Indigo’s Shortcovers – a digital ebook app that will run on iPhone, BlackBery, and Android operating systems – devices that many potential Kindle buyers already own. Shortcovers lets users read the first chapter of a book without charge with the option of buying additional chapters individually or the entire book at rates comparable to Kindle and Sony. The difference between Shortcovers and other ebook readers already available on many mobile platforms is the relationship Indigo has with publishers. Shortcovers will initially offer over 50,000 titles, only a third of which are public domain titles. Indigo will also offer news and magazine articles – ala Kindle. Until prices drop dramatically – which may depend on advances in thin displays – the Shortcovers model may make more inroads in popularizing digital formats than Amazon and Sony can only dream of.

Great Question At TechCruch – Still Using A Landline?

gadgetHead — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 17:04:00 +0000

Almost ten years ago I moved to the D.C. area for the second time and finally broke down and purchased my first cell phone. Once I arrived in my new home, all my business contacts, friends, and family knew my new cell number and used it exclusively. It wasn’t until many years later that I signed up for a VOIP line for my home. Perhaps most of you haven’t been without a landline that long – but in late 2008 how many of you still have a physical line to a local telco? Click to visit a TechCrunch.com and answer their poll ‘Do you still have a landline?’ and see where you fit in with the rest of the tech crowd.

IE8: The Most Standard Compliant Browser Ever?

gadgetHead — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 14:34:58 +0000

Technorati Tags: microsoft,IE8,standards compliant

Peter Bright has posted an article on ars technica reporting that the upcoming Internet Explorer 8 from Microsoft will default to “standards mode”. Though not exactly fully W3C compliant, IE8 will be a huge leap from earlier versions of IE. This is good news to frustrated web developers who have struggled with developing web pages that work and display equally across the major browsers. IE has notoriously not been standards compliant in the past and Microsoft has tried to muscle they’re own “standards” into the development community. It’ll be interesting to see if Microsoft continues down this path, or succumbs to the temptations of the past.

Steven Spielberg Behind New Social Network

gadgetHead — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 05:02:14 +0000

Technorati Tags: social network,steven spielberg,paranormal

According to techcrunch.com, Steven Spielberg is involved in building a new social network which will focus on the paranormal. According to insiders, the site will let users research and share ghostly and extraterrestrial stories. Expect a video component as well. Is this a good idea in the already crowded social media space? Normally we would say no, but perhaps Spielberg’s name is the ‘X’ factor that will draw visitors. Still, we doubt a crush of visitors will crash the servers when the site goes live.

After A Small Respite, Yahoo! Is Trying Social Media Again

gadgetHead — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 00:13:38 +0000

Technorati Tags: Yahoo! 360,Yahoo,MyM,social media

Only a few weeks after it was announced they were giving up on Yahoo! 360, it’s reported Yahoo! is launching “MyM”, a new, self-described “social messaging” service. Currently in private beta, MyM is a web based portal for accessing multiple instant messaging and social media sites in one place. Valleywag.com is reporting that Yahoo! insiders are saying that MyM is far from ready and many are concerned that the sites Yahoo! wants to access through the service will block MyM since Yahoo! is a social media competitor. Is Yahoo! grasping at straws and stretching themselves too far? Come on Microsoft, buy Yahoo! and end the pain.