Samsung Phone’s Mammoth Screen Is Made for Multimedia | Product Reviews | Wired.com

http://m.wired.com/reviews/2011/06/samsung-infuse-4g/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

Ren Ng Shares His Photographic Vision: Shoot Now, Focus Later | Gadget Lab | Wired.com

http://m.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/06/ren-ng-lytro/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

Broad multitouch patent granted to Apple

From AppleInsider: Broad multitouch patent granted to Apple seen as 'huge blow' to rivals

Apple this week was awarded an iPhone-related patent first filed in December of 2007, a victory that intellectual property experts believe will be significant.

Microsoft's looks like it may Drop Silverlight!!!

From Slashdot: Microsoft's SkyDrive Drops Silverlight

"Microsoft's SkyDrive, a web service that provides cloud storage for end user files, has just acquired a revamped user interface — and it is HTML5 based. Yes, another Microsoft website has dropped Silverlight. How can Microsoft expect independent developers to base their future on Silverlight when Microsoft itself is abandoning it like a sinking ship? Whatever happened to 'eating your own dog food'? It seems that now Microsoft would rather eat dog food made elsewhere..."

From Slashdot: Silverlight Developers Rally Against Windows 8
"A legion of Silverlight developers have threatened revolt after Microsoft made no mention of Silverlight or .Net in the vendor's brief video preview for its upcoming Windows 8 operating system. Developers expressed fears Microsoft might let their investment in skills 'die on the vine' as Redmond finally embraces open standards. Microsoft, for their part, have told developers they can't say more until September."

The History of the Videophone In Sci-Fi

From Slashdot: The History of the Videophone In Sci-Fi
"Ars Technica has an interesting story about the history of the videophone in Science Fiction. Star Trek has always depicted the video calling when hailing ships and planets, but even the 1935 movie The Tunnel depicted video calling from one continent to another and even video calling from airplanes! And huge public video screens showing the news and current events. Now we can use Skype to call one another over the Internet and video call with mobile `phones, but the video quality is nowhere near the quality shown in the film 2001 or the aforementioned Transatlantic Tunnel film."

Apple To Start Making TVs? - Slashdot

FROM: SlashDot:


"Apple might want to sell you your next TV,' says this CNN report. Which makes a lot of sense, considering that Apple's razors-and-blades, vertical-marketplace model for iTunes (and the various iDevices) doesn't make as much sense with the world of TV, where your Sony, Samsung, or (egads!) Westinghouse set is just as happy with a Google TV box, or a Roku, or one of many other media devices, as it is with an Apple TV attached."

Vint Cerf Says Fix the Net With More Pipe - Slashdot

He's right.   ISP's in Asia get this, applications that use more video sell more Internet and make them more money. Only here in the US, instead of welcoming high bandwidth application, instead they try to sabatoge them. They want to sell bandwidth and then not want users to use it.



From Vint Cerf Says Fix the Net With More Pipe - Slashdot

"While ISPs may fret about Netflix, Hulu and other streaming media services saturating their bandwidth, Internet forefather Vint Cerf has a simple answer for this potential problem: Increase bandwidth exponentially. With sufficient bandwidth, streaming video services of prerecorded content wouldn't be necessary, said the now-technology evangelist at Google. With sufficient throughput, the entire file of a movie or television show could be downloaded in a fraction of the time that it would take to stream the content. Cerf, speaking at Juniper Network's Nextwork conference, spoke about the company's decision to outfit Kansas City with fiber-optic connections that Google claims will be 100 times faster than today's services. The purpose of the project was 'to demonstrate what happens when you have gigabit speeds available,' Cerf said. 'Some pretty dramatic applications are possible.' One obvious application is greater access to high-definition video, he explained. 'When you are watching video today, streaming is a very common practice. At gigabit speeds, a video file [can be transferred] faster than you can watch it,' he said. 'So rather than [receiving] the bits out in a synchronous way, instead you could download the hour's worth of video in 15 seconds and watch it at your leisure.' He adds: 'It actually puts less stress on the network to have the higher speed of operation.'"

On Monday, AT&T Customers Enter Era of Broadband Caps

"The Age of Broadband Caps begins Monday, with AT&T imposing a 150 GB cap on DSL subscribers and 250 GB for UVerse users, and keeping the meter running after that. The move comes as AT&T's 16+ million customers are increasingly turning to online video such as Hulu and Netflix on-demand streaming service instead of paying for cable. With AT&T's Man in the White House, some fear there's a 'digital dirt road' in America's future. Already, the enforcement of data caps in Canada has prompted Netflix to default to lower-quality streaming video to shield its users from overage fees."

T-Mobile Joins the Capped Data Bandwagon
"It looks like T-Mobile is following the lead of Verizon and AT&T in shifting from unlimited data plans to tiered pricing. It starts with their family plans which may be cheaper than unlimited depending on your family's usage. Was this done for its customers' families or for its future parent, AT&T?"

Netflix Isn't Swamping the Internet

"Remember the Sandvine report from earlier this week that said Netflix gobbles up 30% of Internet traffic during peak hours? It needs clarification on a couple of important points, says blogger Kevin Fogarty. First, yes, Netflix traffic spikes during prime time, but only across the last mile. Second, ISPs underestimate what a 'normal' level of Internet use really is. 'When AT&T announced its data caps – 150GB per month for DSL users and 250GB for broadband – it called the data levels generous and said limits would only affect 2 percent of its customers. It turns out Netflix users take up an average of 40GB per month just from streaming media, according to a different Sandvine report (PDF).'"

App To Keep ISPs Honest About Bandwidth Caps
"A browser-based app developed by Georgia Tech researchers is designed to help Internet users make better use of their bandwidth – and to make sure ISPs are holding up their end of the bandwidth bargain. The Kermit app, which is being shown off Wednesday (PDF) at the CHI 2011 Conference on Human Factors in Computing in Vancouver, emerges at a time when service providers are starting to place bandwidth caps not just on wireless services, but on wireline services, too. AT&T, for example, is putting such caps in place this month for its DSL and U-verse customers. At least initially, such caps aren't expected to affect all but the very heaviest bandwidth users."


World Internet Traffic To Top 966 Exabytes In 2015

"Networking giant Cisco has released its latest annual Visual Networking Index (VNI) today, which forecasts that world internet traffic will quadruple by 2015 to reach 965.5 ExaBytes per year (up from 242.4 ExaBytes in 2010); when 40% of the world's population will be online (i.e. 3bn Internet users). Internet video will account for 61% of all consumer traffic in the same year, while P2P (File Sharing) will decline significantly to just 16%."

Fwd: Bolymin Inc. thank you for visiting at ESC this May (LCD Embedded system)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "kate.huang" <kate.huang@bolymin.com.tw>
Date: Jun 23, 2011 1:48 AM
Subject: Bolymin Inc. thank you for visiting at ESC this May (LCD Embedded system)


Dear Mr. John Sokol,

We are glad to meet you at ESC Show in San Jose this May.

Bolymin is a professional LCD Embedded System manufacturer located in Taiwan. We start our business with LCD module since 1995.
Our Embedded System including Mobile Embedded System, Display Embedded System, Automatic Vehicle Locator, Mobile Data Terminal.
As to our LCD module, we have diversified product lines from monochrome Character, Graphic, COG, TAB, OLED LCM to color OLED and TFT display.
We also provide semi to full custom design service for our clients. Please know more about our product information at  www.bolymin.com.tw
Please feel free to contact us if you need any further information.


Looking forward to hearing from you.

Best Regards,
Kate
*************************************************************
Bolymin, Inc.
5F, No. 38, Keya Road, Daya Township, Taichung County 42878, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Tel: +886-4-2565-8689 ext.130  Fax: +886-4-2565-8698
Website: www.bolymin.com.tw
E-mail: kate.huang@bolymin.com.tw
skype: katebolymin
*************************************************************

Fwd: ppmtompeg - jpeg frames to MPEG

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Jesse Monroy"
Date: Jun 22, 2011 7:24 PM
Subject: Ppmtompeg - jpeg frames to MPEG
To: "John Sokol"
http://netpbm.sourceforge.net/doc/ppmtompeg.html
I'm installing netpbm and the installation program says that this can
be used as a server.

SECURITY REPORT:
This port has installed the following files which may act as network servers and may therefore pose a remote security risk to the system.

/usr/local/bin/ppmtompeg

If there are vulnerabilities in these programs there may be a securityrisk to the system. FreeBSD makes no guarantee about the security of ports included in the Ports Collection. Please type 'make deinstall'   to deinstall the port if this is a concern.

For more information, and contact details about the security status of this software, see the following webpage: http://netpbm.sourceforge.net/

Jesse

Comparison of streaming media systems

I found an amazingly great comparison of Streaming media servers and formats on Wikipedia.
Comparison of streaming media systems

Video conferencing in html5

Web Real-Time Communication: EricssonLabs


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cx4rZH7fLpM

https://labs.ericsson.com/apis/web-real-time-communication/

Through emerging web standards, it will soon be possible to build web applications with support for real-time voice and video communication without the need for plug-ins. By downloading and running this browser, experimentation can be done with these new features.

Fwd: Turkey votes Orad in General Elections

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Orad" <info@orad.tv>
Date: Jun 21, 2011 12:31 AM
Subject: Turkey votes Orad in General Elections
To: <sokol@videotechnology.com>

Press Release June 21, 2011 Turkey votes Orad in General Elections Leading Turkish broadcasters TRT, TV8 and Haberturk relied on Orad for their winning broadcasts of the Turkish General Elections on June 12th, 2011. The Turkish viewing audience was mesmerized by Orad's powerful, interactive, virtual graphic capabilities. Turkey's largest public broadcasters, TRT, captured the highest television ratings thanks to Orad's comprehensive election solution. By combining the capabilities of virtual productions into their broadcast, TRT were able to incorporate dynamic virtual backgrounds into their conventional studio. Augmented reality graphics, including election bars and tables were also displayed during the election production utilizing Orad's sensors tracking capabilities and Egripment TDT6 ENC fully encoded crane with 6 meters arm and 306 head. Adding to the broadcast's excitement was the incorporation of virtual Turkish monuments including the Parliament Building, the bridge over the Bosporus, Izmir Clock Tower and others into their productions. By relying on OradTouch, the presenters used their iPads to interact and control virtual graphics in real time. In addition to branded graphics including lower thirds, bugs, etc, in order to ensure that viewers were kept up to date at all times with the latest election updates, tickers ran continuously with up to the second, accurate election data. TRT's broadcast was distributed to all their channels across the country including TRT1 and TRT Haber. TV8, a privately owned Turkish broadcaster, relied on Orad's election solution to provide their viewers with up to the second accurate election coverage. Powerful, real time, and accurate on air graphics were used to provide branding and election updates. In addition, by relying on Orad's interact solution combined with a radarTOUCH device, TV8's presenters were able to interact with the graphics displayed on their regular video wall. TV8 providing their viewers with an intuitive election graphics presentation both on the Election Day and the following day. Haberturk, the main Turkish news channel owned by CinerGroup used Orad's Maestro system for their full, real time coverage of the elections. Lower thirds, tickers, and full screen graphics powered Haberturk's Election coverage in the more than 12 hours of live programming. TRT and TV8 election coverage were fully supported by Orad's professional team and Orad's Turkish partner Baran Bilisim.   For more on Orad's election solutions please go to: www.orad.tv/solutions/elections                   About Orad Hi-Tec Systems Orad Hi-Tec Systems is a world leading provider of real time 3D broadcast video solutions, including; news, channel branding, sports production and enhancement, special events, virtual studios, and virtual advertisement. Orad's compelling solutions streamline production workflow, enhance viewer experience and improve production value. Founded in 1993, Orad is a public company listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (OHT). For more information, visit www.orad.tv For further information contact: ORAD Hi-Tec Systems Ltd Ofir Benovici Vice President Marketing ofirb@orad.tv

To make changes to your profile information, go here. If you would prefer not to receive emails from us, go here. Please send any comments about this email to info@orad.tv

Fwd: CEA President and CEO Gary Shapiro to Keynote 2011 SINOCES

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Consumer Electronics Association" <press@ce.org>
Date: Jun 20, 2011 7:06 AM
Subject: CEA President and CEO Gary Shapiro to Keynote 2011 SINOCES
To: "John Sokol" <sokol@videotechnology.com>

FOR RELEASE

Contact:

Tara Dunion 703-907-7621 tdunion@CE.org www.CE.org

or

Sarah Myers 703-907-4368 smyers@CE.org www.CESweb.org

CEA President and CEO Gary Shapiro to Keynote 2011 SINOCES

China's Largest Consumer Technology Tradeshow to Feature Latest Trends in Global CE Industry

Arlington, Va., June 20, 2011 – The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)^® today announced that CEA president and CEO Gary Shapiro will deliver a keynote address at the 2011 SINOCES, China's largest tradeshow for consumer technology. Organized by the Qingdao Municipal People's Government in conjunction with the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronics Products (CCCME) and sponsored by CEA, the 2011 SINOCES is scheduled July 7-10 in Qingdao, China.

"China is an important market in the global consumer technology industry and SINOCES provides exhibitors and attendees with the opportunity to experience this growing marketplace," said Shapiro. "We are thrilled to partner with the city of Qingdao for the 2011 SINOCES and look forward to experiencing the dynamic products and trends on the SINOCES show floor."

Shapiro's address is scheduled for 2 p.m., Thursday, July 7 at the Shangri-La Hotel. The SINOCES conference program will feature sessions focused on key issues surrounding the global CE industry, including convergence, information security and government procurement.

CEA's delegation to Qingdao will include Randy Fry, president of Fry's Electronics Inc. and chairman of CEA's Executive Board. Additionally, CEA is sponsoring a VIP buyer program to SINOCES, which will include executives from leading companies such as Best Buy China, RadioShack and Office Depot China.

SINOCES is the largest trade event in China for the consumer technology industry. The 2011 show will feature more than 500 global technology companies including Haier, Hisense, Microsoft, Panasonic, Philips, Toshiba and Siemens, along with major China telecom carriers China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom. Additionally, the International CES Best of Innovations Product Showcase will be on display at the upcoming 2011 SINOCES featuring more than 25 award-winning technology products impacting the CE industry. The Innovations Showcase is making its only appearance outside the United States, offering SINOCES attendees a unique opportunity to see some of the most innovative technology products in the world. 

For more information on the 2011 SINOCES, visit SINOCES.com.

The 2012 International CES, the world's largest consumer technology tradeshow and CEA's flagship event, is schedule for January 10-13, in Las Vegas, Nevada. For more information, visit CESweb.org.

About CEA
The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) is the preeminent trade association promoting growth in the $186 billion U.S. consumer electronics industry. More than 2,000 companies enjoy the benefits of CEA membership, including legislative advocacy, market research, technical training and education, industry promotion, standards development and the fostering of business and strategic relationships. CEA also owns and produces the International CES – The Global Stage for Innovation. All profits from CES are reinvested into CEA's industry services. Find CEA online at www.CE.org and www.Innovation-Movement.com.

UPCOMING EVENTS

CE Week June 20-25, 2011, New York, NY CEO Summit and Board Retreat October 1-3, 2011, Stresa, Lake Maggiore, Italy CEA TechHome Mediterraneo Summit October 3-5, 2011, Stresa, Lake Maggiore, Italy Digital Hollywood Fall October 17-20, 2011, Marina Del Ray, CA CEA Industry Forum October 23-28, 2011, San Diego, CA

CES New York Press Preview featuring CES Unveiled @ NY November 8, 2011, New York, NY Digital Hollywood New York City November 15-17, 2011, New York, NY Future of Television East November 18, 2011, New York, NY 2012 International CES January 10-13, 2012, Las Vegas, NV

If you would like to be removed from this mailing list, please visit CE.org/listremove/

Marshall McLuhan - communication theorist.

"All media that have electricity as their ground have the basic properties of TV" -  Marshall McLuhan

Born in Canada on July 21, 1911, next month is the 100's anniversary of Marshall's birth.

He was a communication theorist and is partly responsible for the way modern TV advertising and programming is done today.

His work is viewed as one of the cornerstones of the study of media theory, as well as having practical applications in the advertising and television industries

McLuhan is known for coining the expressions "the medium is the message" and "the global village" and predicted the World Wide Web almost thirty years before it was invented


Quotes

McLuhanisms

Commemorate 100 years of McLuhan! The “global village” is now—join the worldwide celebrations in 2011
http://marshallmcluhan.com/

Nginx - high performance web server

Nginx™ (pronounced “engine x”), a high performance web server and a reverse proxy server. nginx project started in 2002 and became public in 2004. According to Netcraft over 6% of top million sites run nginx. 


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nginx
http://nginx.net/

I see a number of sites serving streaming Flash Video using this web server.

I wonder how it compaires with AfterBurner or thhtpd.

Apache vs Nginx : Web Server Performance Deathmatch

Curiosity (almost) killed the cameraman

No special effects here - although it's hard to tell if the cameraman is real because he stands so still...

TV Mogul Bonnie Hammer’s Secrets of Success

TV Mogul Bonnie Hammer’s Secrets of Success

It’s hard enough to persuade one person to fall in love with a product. Now try 3 million, seven nights a week. Such is the power of Bonnie Hammer, newly minted head of seven cable channels at NBC Universal. In 2003 she revived the SyFy channel, luring in viewers with Ron Moore’s revamped Battlestar Galactica. Then Hammer took over as president of the USA Network, where she linked beefy wrestlers (WWE) to quivering neurotics (Monk) under the chirpy rubric “Characters Welcome.” And it worked: USA has been the number one basic cable network for five years, valued at $11.7 billion. The 60-year-old Queens native explains her plans to make other NBC Universal channels grab your eyeballs.

Microsoft Brands WebGL a 'Harmful' Technology - Slashdot

From SlashDot: Microsoft Brands WebGL a 'Harmful' Technology

"Microsoft has announced that it has no plans to support WebGL — a cross-platform low-level 3D graphics API designed for web use — in its future browsers, citing numerous security concerns over the technology and branding the basic principles as 'harmful.'"

Iowa Rejects Video Privacy Protection For Cows - Slashdot

From Slashdot:

Iowa Rejects Video Privacy Protection For Cows

"The Seattle Post Intelligencer reports that an effort to outlaw the undercover recording of animal abuse in livestock operations appears to have stalled in Iowa after previously failing in Minnesota, Florida and New York, with the pushback coming from citizens and activists complaining that the proposals were aimed at protecting an industry that doesn't exhibit enough concern for farm animal welfare. A bill introduced earlier this year to criminalize the actions of activists who make unauthorized hidden videos of animal abuse appeared to be headed for approval in the Iowa Legislature, with proposed penalties including fines of up to $7,500 and up to five years in prison. 'I feel it is wrong to absolutely lie to get a job to try to defame the employer,' says Iowa representative Annette Sweeney, a farmer and Republican legislator who sponsored the bill. But District Attorney James R. Horton, who filed animal cruelty charges against employees and the owner of a large-scale calf-raising farm, says he probably 'wouldn't have a case' if not for covert video provided by an animal protection group, and that 'we wouldn't have anything' in terms of evidence against the suspects in the beating deaths of dairy calves at E6 Cattle Co."

Samsung Chromebook Series 5

Samsung Chromebook Series 5 Review & Rating | PCMag.com

There have been some improvements since Google debuted Chrome OS in the CR-48. For one, Flash support, particularly high-definition videos from YouTube and Hulu, has reaped the benefits of hardware acceleration. Videos played back smoothly and lag-free for the most part, but I would have liked Chrome OS to default to a better video quality than 360p . You have to manually adjust to a higher quality setting. When I say HD support, I really mean 720p max (1080p videos choked in YouTube).

A new media player is also included with Chrome OS plays back actual video and music files, as opposed to streaming them from a Web-based service like Amazon's Cloud Player, Pandora, Slacker, etc. But it's very primitive and the media files will have to come from an external device, such as a USB storage devices or an SD card (through the 4-in-1 media card slot). Chrome OS recognizes external storage devices almost immediately, and you browse through files and folders like you would with Windows. The media player handled 1080p MP4 video files and most audio formats very well, even those that were encoded at high bit-rates. But it also left out a bunch of video formats: The media player isn't compatible with mpeg, AVI, WMV video files, and certainly not Blu-ray.

Video is the future! It's one of the few things I am sure of.

  You would think Chrome OS out the gate would focus on that first and foremost.  Everything else being far easier and less demanding other the maybe 3D graphics rendering.