Nikon Launches Camera that Projects

Just saw this new product launch from Nikon. The COOLPIX S1000pj is, from what it says, the first digital camera with a built-in projector capability. I'll be interested to follow this capability, and see how Nikon (and others) improve and expand upon this technology.

Writing on the Wall, in the Air

Engineers at Duke have developed a new way to enter information using smart phones: by writing it into the air. They've leveraged the phone's accelerometers (an internal device that tracks the phones movements and orientations, a huge asset in most games) and turned the phone into a pen, and the air into a blank tablet.

"By holding the phone like a pen, you can write short messages or draw simple diagrams in the air," said Sandip Agrawal, an electrical and computer engineering student at Duke University in North Carolina.

The PhonePoint Pen is due out in a few months, and could be the safe alternative to "driving while texting" the world has been waiting for.

Thanks to LiveScience.

Spelling FAME with three WWW's

An online syllabus for a new class at the Parsons New School is adorned with the following quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Fame is proof that people are gullible." The class is called Internet Famous.

FAME, at least according to this professor, is defined as getting hits; and students in this class learn the science behind how to best leverage social media channels and gain online audiences.

There is no A for Effort, though, as student's grades are tabulated solely on what kind of fame they are able to generate for themselves over the course of the semester:

Offered at Parsons New School of Deisgn, Internet Famous Class is dedicated to learning how to spread your work to the widest possible audience online. It's also the first algorithmically graded class in the history of academics.

Our Famotron software measures the online attention economy — view counts, blog links, social media activity, followers and their influence — and awards students their final letter grade.

Is this affiliated with the Reality TV school?

The Rubik's Redux

I've been reading people's posts on the American International Toy Fair, which wrapped up last week in NYC (photo gallery here). The Rubik's Touch Cube took home top honors for toy of the year, which, from what I can tell, is the toy industries version of an Oscar for Movie of the Year. Lots of thank-you's and people onstage hugging. The handheld-puzzle classic has been given an iPhone-inspired makeover, with touchscreen interfaces and multiple games.

Other cool debut's included Elmo Gloves (Mattel) and 3-D Sidewalk Chalk (Crayola).

Diamond Dust & Tonic?

Double Cross, a new premium vodka brand from Slovenia, recently arrived in US test markets.

Considering that there are some brands out there that distill 14 times, the septuple (7x) distillation struck me as a bit ho-hum for the premium category. What about this juice warrants a $50+ price point, I wondered? Oh, right. There it is. This hooch is filtered through diamond dust. That'll do it.

Reminds me of a Swiss brand I saw last year called Xellent. They distill their vodka with pure Swiss glacier water.

It was Mr. Green...on the Jetway...with the Cellphone!

Another example of an old favorite reinventing itself with new technology. The below is from a recent Hasbro press release, announcing the latest reincarnation of it's board game classic Clue.

"This fall, Hasbro’s classic game of murderous mayhem will take an international twist as the iconic characters from CLUE embark on a globetrotting adventure to foil the plans of the Criminal League for Ultimate Espionage (C.L.U.E.) in CLUE: Secrets & Spies Edition. Intrigue begets intrigue as the new optional text messaging feature transmits game shaping intelligence to Agents Plum, Scarlet, Mustard and the others while an ultraviolet, secret decoder reveals hidden missions to the players."

Read full release here.

Social Communities Become Errand Runners

Found a flyer for RunMyErrand.com's beta website on my door last night. They bill themselves as a site for "the busy" and "the not so busy," a social community through which users can find people to run the errands they're to busy to do themselves.

An online, paypal-like payment system seems to differentiate this from other sites like Craigslist, or the message board of multi-colored flyers behind the sugar station at the coffee house. It links the poster and the runner financially through a credit system; one credit equals one dollar.

Lets say I post "pick up my dry cleaning" as a 7 credit job. It would then go up on the site's wall for all to see, and potential errand-runners would apply to run my errand. I'd look at thier profiles and reviews others have posted, and make my choice. (Maybe they'd have a crazy, errand-running story like this guy??) Once my errand has been completed, funds would be transferred from me-the-poster to them-the-runner through this online credit system. I'd have my freshly laundered shirts, and they'd have seven bucks plunked into thier bank account. No in-person meeting needed, no exchange of cash required. And considering that paying someone for services rendered is an errand in and of itself, this is definately a good thing.