Video Wallpaper

About 4 post ago I talked about how research is moving forward to making newspaper be able to display video. Well why not put that same technology into wallpaper. When you type in video wallpaper into a search engine, basically all you get is something similar to a screensaver that runs in your background of your programs. What I am thinking is why not get rid of TVs? Currently Tvs are expensive as can be and require room, although they are getting thinner every year. I don't think anyone could come as thin as wallpaper. With the video I posted 4 blogs ago, it looks like this will soon be possible. Other pros to this would be a massive screen, probably the biggest screen you can get without buying a projector and while the wallpaper wasn't showing a video. You could have it be like a video wallpaper for a computer. Play some nice smoothing video of the beach and be able to change the wallpaper to virtually anything you want, that way you wouldn't have to be changing actual wallpaper.

These are other pretty cool house designs:

Touch Screens

Everyone keeps saying that touch screen is the future and everything will be touch screen in the future however I think this is wrong. I love my touch screen iPhone but having a touch screen laptop or computer would be a pain I think. Using my finger as a mouse sounds great and convenient but I really don't feel like reaching across the table to touch it. Maybe if they make a computer that the screen is in the desk then that would be pretty cool. Also finger prints would drive me nuts all of the screen. Here are currently some other touch screen devices that I was able to find.

This Microsoft Surface idea is pretty cool and would be fun to play with. I would really like to see it be integrated with bars. Imagine going into a bar, either sitting at the bar or a table doesn't matter and having that be your table. Being able to order your drinks there and keep a running tab in front of you so you know what you've ordered. While not ordering the screen could display regular television. Perhaps a football or basketball game. Many bars already have touch screen game displays.

How ever the Microsoft Surface would be able to display better games with multi-touch features. Also instead of having to pay cash you could just add the game playing charge to your tab. This would be an amazing idea and I would go to a bar that had this at least just to mess around with the table.

Skycar

So in looking into other amazing possible inventions I ran into the skycar. I've heard of old failed attempts at this idea. Until I ran into this video, I never really believed it to be possible. I agree with the technology exist, but I never understood how it would actually work. Paul Moller came up with an actual concept and method that would work. I was always worried on how dangerous it would be able to have thousands of people flying around in the air. However, with the system being used with computers, the possibility of human error is removed. I hope that 30 yrs from now when I am 51, I will be flying to work and other locations quicker.

Harry Potter Newspaper

I recently watched one of the Harry Potter movies and one thing that I always find amazing is the newspapers they show in the movie. Incase you haven't seen a single film I will explain it to you. Basically where in a newspaper we show photographs of something they show the actual video. This sounds amazing but impossible sort of. I looked this topic up in google and tons of websites showed up referring to the topic. Although none of them completely jumped on what I was looking for. Most of the websites showed news or perhaps a review on a product in video form instead of an article. I want to see the day that we have video instead of photographs in newspapers. They say that a photograph is worth a thousand words, well a video is worth more. Although this technology doesn't exist yet, after doing some research it looks like in 3-5 yrs it will be available.

Interactive TV

The other day in class we talked about interactive TV. It was interesting topic although it already exist. Well at least some of the ideas that were presented in the classroom. Some people referred to watching a movie from different house and simultaneously all people be watching the same thing and talk about it. Well thanks to xbox live this is already possible through netflixs. However, my idea for interactive television would consist of being able to decide what the outcome of a TV show is. You can already vote for people on shows like American Idol, however it takes a day or 2 to count up the votes and have a result show. I would prefer for them to simply do the voting at the end of the show and have people text in their favorite. In a matter of seconds you choose the winners to move on. I think this type of interactivity is so amazing, and this is what makes people addicted to TV shows such as those. The quality of the show it self can be disputed but the people participating and feeling that they choose the winner is really what keeps everyone hooked.

Music

So here lately I notice something that most popular pop or even hip-hop music have in common. They are all jumping into the auto-tune fad. Incase you don't know what this is take a look at this website. IAMTPAIN This was first made popular by T Pain who is a recording artist. Well he even made it into an iPhone app which is pretty neat and I did purchase simply because it is fun to play with.

Back to the trend that I am seeing, it seems like all these new hit songs have some sort of auto-tune. Never in a hundred years would I have thought this was something that would become a fad in music. As music evolves it leaves me thinking what will future music sound like. Will it all start sounding like robots too? I hope not.

Here are some other currently popular songs that feature auto-tune:

div>

Can the Android compete with the iPhone?

So after doing extensive research I have concluded that they are both great products. I own an iPhone and think the world of it. Although there are a few things that bother me about it.

Great things about the iPhone:

The iPhone combines a phone and music/media player into one. I always hated having to carry my iPod around too. This is simply convenient. The iPhone is great with the large number of apps that are available for download. This is a great plus too. A few things that both me are how they simply block minor customization options that most phones offer. I am rather surprised that they haven't changed these little options that would really make the phone better. For example, being able to simply change the text tone to anything you want it to be.

The Android:

Now this phone is more technologically advanced in several aspects. It does augmented reality which is pretty amazing. Just type it into youtube and you can find all types of cool things that you can do with it. The keyboard on the phone is pretty nice. But the main reason I would still prefer an iPhone over the Android is because it lacks a good music player. The memory on it is not nearly sufficient to my music library. It can be upgraded but you have to purchase an SD card that will cost you a hefty more on top of the cost of the phone itself already.

Article

Interactive Pacers Game

So this NBA season I have so far made it to every home Pacers game and not gonna lie I have been rather disappointed. Not that the Pacers aren't doing great, currently sitting on a 5 game winning streak and playing tonight to possibly make it 6. The part I am disappointed with is the fact that during the breaks in the game the crowd interaction event things that they used to do are now gone. Before they had little segments where they ask people to do the air guitar and do some disco dance or something but no longer is that part of the intermissions. Now it is just videos featuring advertisements and some videos of players answering questions.

I was thinking, why not add some sort of device that people can participate during the game in trivia or other questions that are asked. Obviously this would cost money but in doing so I think they would have probably the most technological advanced arena.

This was a response to this cool article that i read.

7 High Tech Sports Stadiums

Currently GPS systems leave me wanting more. A few of the devices currently let you see what the road signs that are coming ahead will say and look like. The iPhone Google Maps has a feature at certain intersections allows you to see a 360 degree view, all the way around up and down. Well this next video is the new step, even though this is a teaser someday it will be do able. (Video 1) Currently the the 360 view doesn't go down the road as you travel. Therefore, you can't see exactly what you are looking at in the 360 view. If you could you would be able to navigate your way so much better and find your location. Although this video is just a teaser, I don't know how they would go about and show all of the work correctly. Put a camera down every street everywhere or can satellites now do that?

(Video 1)

Paranormal Activity

So I am sure we have all heard of this super scary movie. Personally I am not a fan of horror movies because I find them really predictable and they don't scare me. The Saw series is a very recent popular one, but for the most part it is just very bloody. After reading many reviews on Paranormal Activity I decided to give it a try, and it was good.

What made this movie good was that, no one really knows what they do when they sleep. Not everyone lies there still and sleeps. Have you ever seen someone sleep walk? Or someone talk in their sleep? Everyone always says it is because they were dreaming but what if it is something more like the movie sort of suspects. Paranormal State is a show on A&E that is very similar. In that show they go out to real locations and record paranormal findings. I started wondering where can I go to find something similar here. There was haunted houses everywhere however those aren't real. Hannah Haunted house is the only one I could find locally that has tours and lets you stay over night and experience the paranormal things going. Sign me up, sounds interesting.

The debate will always be up in the air if it paranormal activities really do happen, but when a window/door closes on its own, something did it.

2 Mobile Direct Tv

Direct TV App – Currently there is a Direct TV app that lets you program your DVR, which is all right but too simple. I want some live streaming on to my iPhone; currently NFL ticket is available on the iPhone. So if you can subscribe to it, you can watch any NFL game live on your iPhone. But I want all 300 hundred channels that I have on my TV to be on my mobile phone. If they can do it for the NFL ticket, why not everything? There are a few apps that are starting to lean towards live broadcast via phones, however many of them are just news stations. With his app you would never miss your basketball game you want to watch, or miss that season finale of your favorite TV show.

1 Netflix

Netflix! – Netflix is a great service that I subscribe to, basically it allows you to watch any movie made and the most popular TV shows on the Internet or they will send you the DVD. This is great for when I am on the go and I can stream it to my laptop. Now why can’t they make a Netflix app. Currently the only apps available with Netflix allow you to change your instant queue. That’s is pretty lame and don’t know why anyone would ever pay for that. Netflix on the go would be the absolute best mobile video device every made. No longer would you have to download movies from the iTunes Store or take a bulky portable DVD player. You would have a selection of thousands of videos for instant stream to your phone.

3 Skype

Skype – It already exists but why not expand it even more? If you aren’t familiar with Skype here is a quick summary of what it can do. You can talk to anyone in the world using Skype for free as long as the other person is on Skype too. You can also video chat. You can use it to call actually cell phones and numbers, but you have to subscribe to the monthly fee. Basically Skype takes tried to make communicating with others via the web more immersive. We’ve been able to IM others for sometime now, and even voice chat. Now there is video chat. Currently on the iPhone app you can make Skype to Skype calls as long as you are on Wi-Fi. Why now get the camera feature working too. Obviously you will run into the problem that the camera is in the back and you can’t see what you are filming, however this would be really unique and add a new option to the app. Major problems I find currently with making this possible is the network bandwidth that would be needed to stream video.

App Store

In the next few blogs I will be talking about the App Store run by Apple. Obviously the is a virtual store that was created to make money, however there are a few apps that I think should be expanded on or be created. Currently the App Store has over 100,00 apps and that number grows daily. The only problem is that the store restricts the Apps that they allow. So I highly recommend jail breaking your iPhone so you can experience those “homebrewed” apps that are amazing and fully take advantage of what the iPhone can do.

Apple came out with the greatest thing in today’s multimedia market with applications for their iPhone and iTouch. However, I still feel that there is many applications lacking that should be considered to be added to the store. The following are my top 3 and why they should be implemented.