In celebration of the Olympic Games that start today in Bejing, China, Google has created a widget that contains a medal tracker as well as event and venue information. All built on their mapping technology.
And here it is:
[If you don't see the embedded map, view the web original post on the site]
Be sure to come back often to see how the medal tally plays out.
Have you ever been on vacation and wanted to know where the closest LDS Church is? How about moving to a new area and wondering to which ward you belong, to which building you should go and what time are services?
The IT team for the church has just released a beta version of their new mapping application. This will eventually replace the current “Meetinghouse Locator.”
Check it out. It’s nicely done. Even if you don’t know an address, you can “Place a Marker” (click the icon on the top left of the map and then click on your desired location) and it will figure it all out for you. It provides surrounding meetinghouses and all the wards that meet at each location as well as contact information. It will also identify to which ward that location is assigned (even gives you language and YSA wards).
Under the hood, it can either use Google Maps or Microsoft’s Live Maps.
Well done guys!
When the original iPhone first came out, I posted a review after just a week or so of use. One of my major complaints was the lack of voice dialing. When Apple announced their SDK, I had hoped that someone would build a third party application to do just that.
My hope was answered by a Salt Lake company called Fonix, known mostly for their speech recognition software. A few days ago, they announced an application, Fonix iSpeak, to not only do voice dialing, but also voice commands to control other parts of the iPhone.
Oh yeah! I hope they don’t try to charge an arm and a leg for it. If they keep it reasonable, then that will be one of the first apps I aqcuire from the AppStore.
Today will be a day of infamy fame, err… it’ll be cool. Ok… maybe not that amazing, but it might be cool. The Mozilla Foundation has just released the latest version of Firefox. What does version 3 give you? It’s faster, sleeker, consumes less memory and gives more functionality.
Today is special because they want to set a new Guinness World Record for the most downloads of a software product in a 24 hour period. It started at 10AM PDT and is still going.
If you aren’t using Firefox instead of Internet Explorer, then shame on you.
Not only is Firefox a better, more secure and faster product, it’s also open-source. Which means several things. Firstly, it’s free! Yay! Secondly, it’s free! You may say that I just said that, but there are two different uses of the word free. There’s free when speaking of price, but there is also free when speaking of speech. Internet Explorer is free (price), but not free (speech). Firefox, although it is developed by Mozilla, can be changed, re-written and distributed by anybody. In fact, there are a few other projects that liked what Mozilla started with, but didn’t like the direction or a trademark and so they started their own version of Firefox (renaming it).
Although there are offshoots, Firefox reigns supreme in the browser war as the “other browser.” Internet Explorer has had a foothold for many years, but Firefox is changing that. And this version brings us that much closer.
So go get it. Let freedom ring!
When Dwight D Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, in 1958, I wonder if he had any inkling of what kind of an impact that action would have on the world. Not only did the act create the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), but also DARPA (Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency).
DARPA later went on to contribute significantly to the creation of the Internet and several other technologies we use each day (like GPS), but let’s focus on what came from NASA research. Everyone knows the many accomplishments of NASA in regards to space exploration; Apollo Missions, Moon Landing, International Space Station, etc. But what about all the other technologies we use that have come from NASA research?
From HowStuffWorks.com comes a countdown of the top 10 daily used products that have come from NASA research.
It’s kind of become tradition in the technology industry to put out a fake announcement on April 1 of some cool experimental technology that will revolutionize the industry and is usually completely implausible. Google always leads the way. Today is no exception as they have already started pouring in.
And there are so many more that I am unaware of. It seems everyone is doing some type of April Fool’s joke in the tech community.
Google has been the king of these pranks. A few past Google announcements from April 1:
Checkout a list of all Goolge’s Hoaxes.
I’ve reviewed the iPhone in the past and although I love the device, it has it’s problems and I have my pet peeves. One of the cons I mentioned in my review was a lack of third-party applictions. And although I am waiting with baited breath for the iPhone SDK (promised by end of February), which will bring third-party apps, I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the quality of the online applications inspired by the iPhone.
Within the first few days oh having my iPhone, I went looking for the scriptures online. But not just the scriptures. I wanted something that was optimized for the iPhone so I wasn’t waiting for several minutes in Church for a verse to load. I found a decent application at MountainMighty.com ScripturesApp.com. This little site provides not only a the scriptures formatted for the iPhone, but handy tools like bookmarks, community bookmarks and searching. Just recently though, they outdid themselves by adding the current Elder’s Quorum and Relief Society lesson manual as well as the words to the hymns. I’ve been wanting the hymns for a while and although the manual is available on lds.org it’s much more bulky and hard to navigate. So thank you Chuck!
I recently wrote an article about the High Definition DVD format war. Well, the war is over. Yesterday, Toshiba (the creator of the HD-DVD format) announced it would cease production of HD-DVD technology.
So what does this mean for you? Probably still nothing. Should you rush out and buy a Blu-ray player? Nope. Prices are still way to high. The cheapest Blu-ray players are still over $400 with the exception of an announced player from Funai for “less than $300″. And in reality, the Sony Playstation 3 is probably the best bang for your buck in Blu-ray players. Not only is it a top-quality player, but it also plays lots of amazing games (if you are into gaming).
I consider myself a bit of a technology geek. I’m not the type that has to be the first to have new technology, but I consider myself an early adopter. Although my main DVD player is on the fritz right now, I am going to hold off on a Blu-ray player. Once they get below $250, I might consider a purchase. Until then, the 480p resolution from standard DVD is going to have to suffice.
Some people say that Apple Macintosh users are elitists. If that’s the case, I just became rather elite. I’m now typing this on my shiny new MacBook Pro.
On Wednesday, I started a new job at the Wasatch Front Regional Multiple Listing Service (WFR). When I started, they gave me the choice of what kind of computer I wanted. I had the option of a laptop, desktop, PC, Mac, etc. I’ve had my eyes on a MacBook Pro for some time (since OS X came out and I realized it was built on BSD), but just never had enough guts to spend a lot of money on something I might not really like. So I let the company spend that money. 
First thing I got when I got to the office on Wednesday morning is a bright shiny 17 inch MacBook Pro. And I quickly got to work configuring it and making it my own.
Perhaps you’ve heard of Blu-ray and HD-DVD. Bly-ray and HD-DVD are competing technologies for the next generation in home video. The video and audio coming from these technologies is incredible. Can you tell the difference… nope. They are pretty much the same. And as home video tech goes, welcome to the latest format war.