Month: April 2012

 

With a whole slew of apps available, the Today Show and I thought it was time we highlighted some of the new and interesting ones that have come out lately. Here I talk to Karl about some cool apps we’ve seen:

Roamz

• Roamz is a location-based app that helps you find out what is happening around you.
• It shows you social content about places, events and activities that are relevant to you.
• It uses information from the networks you use like – Facebook, Foursquare, Instagram and Twitter. App cuts through the noise to deliver you personalized and intelligent suggestions.
• Shows you things that you are actually interested in.
• The more you use Roamz the smarter it gets – It learns more about what the user enjoys.
• Slogan is always being a local.
• You can capture and share Roamz moments at places that you discover too.
• Great way to discover secret locations in places all over the country and world.
• Cost: Free

Draw Something

• Is a really fun and addictive game.
• Much like pictionary on your phone.
• Great for the kids
• You have to guess a word using the picture drawn by playing partner
• Can play with friends and random opponents.
• Play with Friends or randoms on iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch: Challenge friends on Facebook or Twitter, or be automatically partnered with new gaming buddies.
• No drawing skills required: You can create a picture that will make sense to guess the word. Can be very funny.
• Colour Craze – Over 50 colours available. Have play and win then buy.Turn-based Gameplay: Perfect for on the run. Take turns drawing and guessing at your own pace.
• Leaderboard: Rally back and forth with friends for the most “Turns.”
• Bombs: If you’re stumped on a word – exchange it for a new one by exploding it with a bomb. (Only 5 though)
• Push Notifications: Be alerted when it’s your turn to draw or guess.
• Cost: Free

Viddy

• Most popular app going at the moment.
• Viddy is a simple way for anyone to capture, beautify, and share videos.
• It’s like instagram but instead of pictures it’s video.
• Allows users to immediately upload videos.
• Advanced camera includes focus / exposure / white balance settings, audio metering, timer and more.
• Add visual effects, music, transitions, and even movie stars to your videos
• 100 percent free packs such as Vintage, Crystal, Solarize, Red, Exposed, Retro, Glam, BW, Hued, Junkd and 3D
• 100 percent free brand packs such as Snoop, Incubus, and more.
• Share your creation privately, to your friends, or to the world
• One-click sharing to the social web, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Tumblr
• Interact with your friends with tags, likes and comments
• Realtime video discovery and exploration from a vibrant community.
• An endless source of creativity, inspiration and personal expression.
• Videos are currently limited to :15 seconds.
• Vimeo and YouTube are great places to share longer videos.
• Video capture is not supported for iPhone 3G and older.
• Cost: Free

Earthcast

• Online 24 hour HD viewing channel of earth
• Camera is on international space station
• Live stream 24 hours a day – every day
• First images to be seen in HD of Earth
• NASA and other companies have been working together to set this up.

 

 

Spoke with Karl about some new tools that are designed to help parents keep an eye on kids. It’s called the Telstra Safe Social tool. What does it do? Features include

New “iSpy” technology will give parents an insight into their children’ Facebook activity. Parents are alerted with an SMS text or email about bad behaviours. It can:

• The safety tool scans social network sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Myspace on any device (computer, phone, tablet)
• SMS and email alerts can be sent as soon as it detects:
• Abusive or offensive words,
• Inappropriate content
• Monitor friend requests from strangers.
• The content danger list is updated daily by creators.
• Kids activity can also be monitored via a screen “dashboard” or with daily or weekly reports. It’s a Cloud-based technology which allows kids to prove themselves trustworthy.
• Aimed at catching out bullies and predators before damage is done.
• Creators liken it to having a parent in the room. Creaters hope it instigates parents and children to talk about web dangers.

I see a couple of problems with this service. First of all, you have to ask you kid for their user names and passwords in order for it to work. How many kids will be willing to do this? And if you force them to give you their details – ie, “No more computer until you cough up detes” – what is to stop them starting a dummy account?

It is also costing you $10 a month to use. Why not buy a security software solution from the likes of Trend Micro, Nortons or similar provider, for about $150 which not only covers parental control but has a whole slew of other features, too?

Another item we talked about was the accelerometer, which monitors the driving/movements of the car. It collects data on things like:

• Braking
• Speeding
• Cornering
• Changing lanes.
• Anything to do with movement.

If any of these movements are detected/deemed to be severe or erratic it sounds a beep – the more severe movement the more beeps. It could be beeping for several reasons, and the number of beeps means different things, such as:

• One beep – Eco Event: just a little heavy on the gas or brakes. Take more care – heavy braking or over acceleration adds to operating costs.
• Two beeps – Aggressive driving: Ease up. No need to rush. It’s more expensive and means accidents will happen.
• Three beeps – Unsafe driving: Slow down immediately. Give more room to other motorists. Start paying attention.
• Four beeps – Dangerous driving: You are at risk. If this is happening on your journeys, you are placing yourself, your passengers and other motorists at serious risk.
• Five beeps – Sustained dangerous driving: Extreme risk event. This should be a wake up call to look at your driving and adjust immediately. It’s not cool, it’s deadly and

It has a GPS tracker that transmits the information collected by the Accelerometer back to a password protected website.

This information is presented to parents/family and shows if car has been driven safely, where the car has been driven and how, and gives a full rundown of driving habits.

 

On The Today Show we showed off some of the cool features coming in the latest Smart TV’s. In truth each tv has many cool features, but some have some features that are exclusive to the one set. Below are the different models we looked at on the show in more detail –

Samsung Series 8 LED Smart TV
•    Motion/voice/facial interaction
•    AllShare Play – Galaxy Tablet, and Samsung Galaxy SII smartphone connectivity
•    Video Apps – BigPond Unified App, Samsung Music Hub’s music video (QuickFlix and FOXTEL coming soon)
•    Catch-up TV apps – 7PLUS, ABCiView
•    Social media Apps – YouTube, Skype, Twitter, Facebook etc.
•    $4,599

Panasonic Full HD 3D IPS LED LCD TV
•    Viewers can ‘tap and flick’ content such as movies, images and music stored on their Smartphone or tablet directly to their VIERA TV
•    Content providers BigPond Movies and Quickflix, to social networking on your TV, and a web browser.
•    A Smartphone or Tablet Device can be used as a TV remote control with the SMART VIERA Remote App Version 2.0.
•    Social Networking TV – use Facebook or Twitter while watching TV. 
•    Skype offers ‘Split Screen’ feature, allowing viewers to simultaneously watch TV while video calling family and friends
•    Recording from your TV using an external HDD or SD Memory Card.
•    RRP: $2849

LG Cinema 3D Smart TV
•    The Dual Play function combats the previous ‘fixed split-screen’ experience, where player one would watch their scene unfold on the top half of the TV, and player two would watch their scene on the bottom half. With special glasses each player gets to see their own separate screen and full size.
•    The Magic Motion remote allows you to point and click, similar to a computer mouse, and will also respond to simple gestures and voice commands.
•    With a focus on sharing great content, WiDi allows the consumer to push personal and online content from an Intel Wireless Display-enabled laptop onto the LG Smart TV.
•    With 2nd Display allolws you to watch TV on your smartphone or tablet PC from anywhere within the range of wifi, providing location flexibility that was previously not available.
•    A number of the new models in the range also feature LG’s unique floating stand providing a stylish and uncluttered appearance that will blend seamlessly with any setting, and can swivel ensuring your view is optimised from the angle you are sitting.
•    $4,599

Sony Bravia HX850
•    Organises internet content into simple to navigate channels. A dedicated SEN (Sony Entertainment Network) remote key takes you to dozens of internet TV channels, movie services, streaming music and games.
•    The HX850 also uses Sony’s Motionflow XR technology which reduces blur caused by quick camera movements.
•    Access to Sony’s own music streaming service (Music Unlimited), which allows you access to over 7,000,000 songs and 4 movie services including.
•    The BRAVIA range also allows you to browse the internet, use Facebook and Twitter, use a host of apps, make video calls with Skype all while watching your TV.
•    RRP: $3,500