Design

New camera tech takes pictures from inside your heart, changes surgery forever

Written by

Heart surgery is a big deal. Doctors frequently have to use a reciprocating saw to cut through your breastbone, often have to flip over your heart to get at the backside of it. Any tech that makes this unnecessary, or even a bit easier, is a real boon.

This camera is threaded to your heart via an artery and produces high resolution images in real time.

The birth of a Google Doodle

Written by

[VIDEO] This is the story of how Google artist Jennifer Hom went about creating the Google Doodle for St Patricks Day. Good research, but even better artwork. Lovely stuff.

Jony Ive interviewed by the Sunday Times Magazine

Written by

The original Sunday Times interview was behind a paywall, but Time Magazine carried it in the clear. The post carries excerpts from the interview, and some comments from the man who wrote the Jony Ive book.

The NEX band and the world’s first hardware app store

Written by

The NEX band is a wrist band that acts as a hub for clip-on hardware mods that add various notification capabilities. At first blush, this seems like a genius idea. The NEX band tackles some of the same ideas addressed by existing smart bands, but builds in a plug and play extendability.

I can only assume that the appropriate teams at Apple are digging in to this technology with great interest. Fascinating tech.

Library of Congress scans classic books, puts them online for free

Written by

The list is a long one and includes classics such as Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Dracula, and In the Court of King Arthur, to name but a few.

The real beauty is that these old editions are real scans, as opposed to optical character recognition (OCR) scans that are converted into plain text. To me, this adds to the experience of enjoying a truly classic work.

Jeff Bridges and photography

Written by

[VIDEO] It’s the Dude himself, extolling the virtue of the Widelux camera, amongst other things. Great video.

A must watch if you are at all a fan of Jeff Bridges or photography. Lovely.

Unfortunately, does not appear to work on iOS.

Smart bracelet detects movement of your hand, translates into sound

Written by

[VIDEO] Moff bills itself as a “wearable smart toy”. Grab a broom and strum, and the Moff bracelet will emit a guitar sound. Grab a banana and point it like a gun, and your shots ring out. A pretend tennis racket, you’ll hear a swat sound when you swing.

I’m not sure this is useful as much as playful, but I love the concept and I think there’s something to this. I’m interested in watching this evolve.

The birth of desktop publishing

Written by

Professor David Brailsford takes you on a walk down memory lane with Apple’s introduction of the Laserwriter.

The Computerphile videos are a bit low tech and homespun, but I find them both charming and informative.

CodeWarrior shirts

Written by

This box arrived in the mail today. My brother Stu was cleaning out his garage and he ran across some of his (my?) old CodeWarrior shirts. He kindly packed them up and posted them to me. I must say, I was delighted and a big wave of nostalgia pushed me around a bit. [PICTURE in the main post]

Sampling colors in an image with the Mac OS X Color Picker

Written by

Consider my mind blown. I did not know you could drag and drop an image onto the Mac OS X color picker so you can sample colors from that image. This is incredibly useful. Read the article for all the details.

Craig Hockenberry on Apple, smart watches, and other wearables

Written by

There is a lot of food for thought in this article. Here’s just a taste:

Trends are always set by the younger generation. Especially with clothing, jewelry and other items that appeal to a demographic with a lot of expendable income. To me, this quote by Tim Cook is the most telling:

“To convince people they have to wear something, it has to be incredible. If we asked a room of 20-year olds to stand up if they’re wearing a watch, I don’t think anyone would stand up.”

This response to Kara Swisher’s question about Apple’s interests in wearable technology covers all the bases. It includes the target market (“20-year-olds”), product focus (“has to be incredible”), and most importantly, he’s seeing the same thing I am: people don’t need to wear watches because they already have that computer in their pocket.

Note also that in the response he doesn’t say “wear a watch”, it’s “wear something”. It’s implied, but not stated. Remember that he learned from the master of misdirection: Steve Jobs.

Absolutely worth a read. Thought provoking piece.

Secret Service seeking bids for new presidential limo

Written by

The presidential limo is definitely an awesome and unfortunately necessary piece of engineering.

The Secret Service is proceeding with development of a new presidential limousine to replace the Cadillac model currently used by President Barack Obama, according to a new General Services Administration contract posting. The new vehicle is expected to be ready for the inauguration of the next president—whomever she or he may be.

Classified armor development for the new rolling Oval Office has been underway since last year. The government is now seeking bidders to integrate that armor into a new design for “The Beast,” as the heavily-protected vehicle is popularly known, with options for the final construction stages. Details of the new design, like the old, are highly classified and contractors must meet strict security requirements just to get a peek at what they will be asked to build.

Just one suggestion: Make sure it comes with CarPlay, and let Apple furnish the touch screen.

Arduboy is a business card that can play Tetris and other games

Written by

[VIDEO] Could this be the future of business cards? Based on the Arduino Pro-Mini, the programming is done on a computer and downloaded into the chip. A lot of hand work and not flexible, but if the market likes this, I suspect automated manufacturing and a more flexible form factor will follow. Video embedded in the post.

Sweet!

Apple patents smart wrist pedometer

Written by

Bottom line, differentiating a step from, say, a bump or an arm raise is a difficult problem to solve. Arm biometrics is an important part of the future.

Meet Chris Anderson, the head curator of TED Talks

Written by

Ever wonder what TED stands for? Who decides what TED Talks to accept? Well wonder no more.

What began somewhat modestly in 1984 when the architect and designer Richard Saul Wurman summoned 300 friends and colleagues to Monterey, Calif., to discuss Technology, Entertainment and Design, now has more angles to it than a Mandelbrot set. Part of Mr. Anderson’s nonprofit Sapling Foundation, the organization has two annual conferences (this month’s includes 1,200 attendees from 42 countries), the free online collection of more than 1,600 TED Talks viewed nearly two billion times, a $100,000 TED Prize, a TED Fellows program and global education initiative, TED digital books, the TED Radio Hour and thousands of TEDx events in more than 150 countries (talks are translated into more than 104 languages).

Great article.

Ebay auction to help raise money for Stan Sakai

Written by

Stan Sakai needs your help. His wife is ill and the bills are piling up. You might know him from his days lettering Groo the Wanderer or as the creator of Usagi Yojimbo. If you are a fan, follow the headline link to see how you can help.

To help the Sakais, Stan’s many friends have rallied in support with donations of cash and artwork. There are two major fund-raising efforts. One is a book that Dark Horse is publishing — a collection of cartoons by an incredible array of cartoonists. The drawings are so amazing, you’ll probably never get around to reading the foreword by me in it. Watch for this book. Buy it. And yes, it’s a contribution to the Sakais’ well-being but it’s also a terrific book which you should purchase just because it’s a terrific book.

The other effort is something you can get in on right now…and again, it’s to your benefit as much as it is to the Sakais’. A “Who’s Who” of great artists has donated drawings — some pre-existing, some done for the occasion — for a big online art auction that’s being run by the Comic Art Professional Society, aka CAPS. The first batch of many wonderful pieces can be bid upon right this minute over on this page. The proceeds go to two good people who need aid…and you can get a terrific, to-be-treasured art piece out of it. I’d call that a Win/Win…so go win/win and get one. Or two. Or more.

Track your luggage using an iBeacon

Written by

[VIDEO]This is a brilliant app idea, assuming it works. Put an iBeacon in your luggage, get notified as your luggage arrives at baggage claim. Genius!