Tech Stream
Posts Tagged ‘ google’
Tech Stream 021
10 July 2009
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With more smartphones featuring GPS, maps and navigation applications what does the future hold for dedicated sat-nav devices? Photo from Flickr by tripu.
We hit the wide open road in the Tech Stream this week with some of the latest GPS satellite navigation applications for mobile phones.
Technology journalist Adam Turner has had a chance to try an Australian sat-nav mobile maps application for the iPhone called Sygic (you can read a full review on his blog). But it seems we shouldn’t be throwing out our dedicated sat-nav devices just yet.
Plus we ask, what exactly is GPS and where did it come from? We have an expert in the field with us to answer our questions: Professor Chris Rizos, Head of the School of Surveying & Spatial Information Systems at the University of New South Wales. You can also read more about GPS – the Global Positioning System – on ABC Science Online.
We also briefly mention the news about Google launching its own PC operating system called Chrome OS. Details are still sketchy but the company has posted this FAQ and blog-post about it.
And finally to gaming and EA’s Sims 3 – the latest in the world’s most successful computer games series. Bajo from Good Game on ABC TV in Australia reviews it for us and says its strongest selling point is the way if fosters an active online community who can use the game to create their own content, including videos.
You can listen to the full Tech Stream program with the MP3 link above or the “Listen Now” link on the right. Feel free to comment on any of these stories or suggest something we can follow up in future programs. You can also subscribe to the podcast too!
Tech Stream 019
26 June 2009
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QR coded jewelry – photo from Flickr by Fluid Forms.
We’re blurring the lines between the virtual and the physical this week in the Tech Stream. We’ll be speaking about augmented reality with Christy Dena, a cross-media researcher and Professor Bruce Thomas from the Wearable Computer Lab at the University of South Australia.
This leads us into a discussion on Quick Response or “QR” Codes which are being used in advertising as well as augmented reality games. Antony McGregor Dey from QMCodes and Mobile Mondays Melbourne will get us up to speed with this new way to link a physical-world object with something in an online or virtual environment.
We’ll also have a report from Connect Asia‘s David Wang on how the Chinese Government is cracking down on pornography online and accusing search engines like Google of disseminating pornographic content within China.
And finally Bajo joins us from Good Game to review the latest Ghostbusters video game.
You can listen to the full Tech Stream program with the MP3 link above or the “Listen Now” link on the right. Feel free to comment on any of these stories or suggest something we can follow up in future programs. You can also subscribe to the podcast too!
Tech Stream 016
5 June 2009
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Electronic waste waiting to be recycled. Photo from Flickr by Eric Dykstra.
We’re marking World Environment Day in the Tech Stream this week. Jeff Angel, Executive Director of the Total Environment Centre tells us about Australia’s new electronic waste recycling scheme. Janet Leslie from Canon Australia explains their e-waste initiatives and ‘green’ calculators. And Elanto Wijayono from Green Map Indonesia introduces us to Open Green Maps – a set of online tools to help communities map natural, cultural and sustainable resources in their area.
But we kick off the program with the blocking of websites like Twitter and Flickr in China this week. Thursday was the 20th anniversary of the Chinese military’s bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square. Myself and Steve Holland from Connect Asia speak with a local Twitter user as well as Jeremy Goldkorn from Danwei.org and Beijing-based technology observer Kaiser Kuo. Radio Australia News Online also has a great feature on the anniversary. Lastly, technology journalist Adam Turner has the lowdown on Google Wave.
The entire program can be heard from the MP3 link at the top, and you can subscribe to the podcast with the link on the right. Feel free to leave a comment below on any of the content in the Tech Stream this week.
Wolfram Alpha
19 May 2009
Photo from Flickr by Howzey.
What is the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything? Could it be 42? That is what the super-computer Deep Thought suggested in Douglas Adam’s classic book and radio series Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Funnily enough when you ask Wolfram Alpha, a brand new computational search engine the same question it also suggests the same answer: 42. Programmers having a bit of a laugh? Possibly. But based on the available data this is quite possibly the only answer within the many terabytes of data available to it. As Reuters reports:
Unlike Google (GOOG), which scans keywords in a search query and offers you thousands of ranked Web sites that might contain the information you’re looking for, Wolfram Alpha reads your question in natural language, scans its own databases, and gives you the answer.
The current questions it is very good at answering are ones that rely on this firm data and computations, but the creators think that “eventually you should be able to ask it about essentially any kind of systematic factual knowledge” and receive an answer. Its worth trying out Wolfram Alpha for yourself and let us know what you think. Here’s some fun things to ask it: what are you? whats your name? how old are you? who made you?
Tech Stream 007
3 April 2009
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In the Tech Stream this week we’re speaking with IT journalist Patrick Gray about the Conficker worm; Google gives internet users in China access to free music downloads in an attempt to capture more of the lucrative search market; Georgia Webster joins us to talk about the way capital letters are used and abused online; and tech-journo Adam Turner charts the rising popularity of the Blu Ray disc.
You can listen to the full program with the MP3 link above or the “Listen Now” link on the right. Feel free to comment on any of these stories below or suggest something we can follow up in future programs.
Review: The Google phone
30 March 2009
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The G1 running Google’s Android operating system. Image from Hexus
We spoke with Ruslan Kogan on Friday about delays to his plan of releasing a mobile powered by Google’s Android operating system in Australia. HTC Corporation are still the only manufacturer to release a smartphone running Android, with their HTC Dream (pictured above and usually just called the G1) unit appearing in the US in October last year. It is also now available in Australia as well as a few other countries in our region.
Peter Marks, technology editor for ABC Radio National Breakfast, spoke with Fran Kelly about the G1 smartphone. You can listen to his review via the MP3 link at the top of this post.
HTC unveiled their next handset running Android, HTC Magic, at the recent Mobile World Congress. The G2 will be available in April in parts of Europe with the rest of us to follow at some point this year. And we should see some more phones or personal media devices coming out with the operating system very soon as well.
Google and the battle over music rights
13 March 2009
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Its been an interesting week for Google-watchers and anyone interested in music or video content online. We heard about a new service called Muziic, which uses an iTunes-like interface to tap into content on YouTube. It was started by a David Nelson, a 15 year old teenager, and enables users to stream YouTube’s music to their PCs without the videos. The site has yet to receive the blessing of Google, who own Youtube, but the company has raised concerns that it violates the video site’s API.
But Google have a lot more on their plate this week. They’re launching a new VOIP-like service to rival Skype. Google Voice will offer a single number for home, work and mobile phones and also turn your voicemail into an email. The service is built on top of Grand Central, a company they acquired in 2007. So far Google Voice is only available to current Grand Central users, and it isn’t clear if it will work for people outside the United States.
Also in the news this week is that Youtube is blocking certain copyrighted music videos in Britain, in a dispute with the UK’s Performing Rights Society for Music, the PRS. The block affects only premium music videos – those supplied by the record companies – but it raises some interesting questions about how content is licensed and funded in the digital world.
Elliott Bledsoe is a researcher at the Centre for Creative Industries and Innovation at the Queensland University of Technology. I asked him what he thought google were hoping to achieve by blocking this content. You can listen to our chat via the MP3 link at the top of this story.
