Planning a vacation around Europe? Don’t bother. Google has captured all of it on Street View by now. All of it. These newfangled Street View trikes let Google go where no car can, joining hoards of black-socks-with-sandals tourists inside the Roman Colosseum, the Baths of Diocletian, the Cupola in Florence and Chateau de Fontainebleau …
Portables
Will You Webcast Your Funeral?
That question was phrased poorly.
You won’t be doing much of anything at your funeral. But would you want your funeral to be webcast for those who can’t attend? The practice is growing in popularity, according to a recent USA Today article.
The benefits, of course, are that those who live too far away, have no drivers license, …
Super 8 Isn’t Dead. It’s Just Been Resting
Austin’s South by Southwest conference conference has a relentless emphasis on the new–new tech startups, new movies, new music. But as I explored the event’s bustling trade-show floor this week, one of the things I was happiest to come across was old. Really old.
When I saw a booth festooned with Kodak signage, I assumed that it was …
Lexar’s First With a 128 GB SDXC Card
Professional photographers and videographers, and wealthy amateurs, take note: Lexar now sells an SDXC memory card with a whopping 128 GB of storage.
SDXC refers to the latest generation of SD memory cards. Theoretically, SDXC supports up to 2 TB of storage and transfer speeds of 104 MB per second. We’re not nearly there yet, but …
Eye-Fi’s Upcoming Fix for the Disconnected Camera Blues
My TIME.com Technologizer column this week is about camera phones and traditional digital cameras. I love ‘em both. But I’m frustrated by the fact that conventional cameras–which still take the best photos–remain some of the least Internet-savvy gadgets around. (As I say in the piece, most people still get photos off a camera and onto …
Nikon Patents Gimmicky DSLR Projector, Everyone Groans
Nikon has filed a patent in Japan for a built-in DSLR projector, which should come in handy should you be the type to always carry a blank wall in your camera bag. According to a Nikon Rumors report, the image will be projected through the eyepiece of the electronic viewfinder so that “two or more persons can see the reproduced image …
Apple Prepping Pay-By-Phone Chip For New iPhone This Year?
You’ll be hearing a lot more about NFC—near field communication—this year, as more and more cell phone manufacturers add NFC chips to their handsets. It’s basically a way to use your phone at a tap-to-pay credit card machine used by various retail stores. You may already have tap-to-pay built into one or more of your debit or credit …
Electronic Waste: Where Does It Go and What Happens To It?
Many people are aware of the disastrous effects that tossing old electronics in the garbage can have on the environment and take special care to dispose of these products properly. While most recycling centers will make sure that your devices are dismantled and reused, a recent NPR story shows us that companies might not be as honest …
Consumer Electronics Show: 11 Tech Trends for 2011
The 2011 Consumer Electronics Show has officially drawn to a close. The biggest tech show around, CES covers over 3 million square feet of floor space and draws over 100,000 industry insiders to Las Vegas in early January every year to set the tone for what we can expect to see from the world of technology in the not-too-distant future. …
Skype Buys Mobile Video Company Qik
Skype has announced that it will acquire mobile video company Qik, a Redwood City-based provider of software allowing mobile users to capture and share video. Describing the companies as sharing “a common purpose of enriching communications with video,” the purchase will give Skype control of Qik’s Smart Streaming technology to optimize …
Digital Camera Sales Up in Emerging Markets
According to records released by GfK Retail and Technology, digital camera sales have increased by a wide margin in emerging markets for the first three quarters of 2010. Sales in countries in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and in the Asia-Pacific region rose about 20 percent with the biggest sector in growth found in China and Asia. …
Three Tech Anti-Predictions for 2010
For my latest Technologizer column over at TIME.com, I peered ahead into 2011 and compiled a list of products and trends that should have an impact before the year is out. I tried to avoid making out-and-out predictions: I think that so much is unknowable that if your prognostications pan out it may be due to luck as much as anything …
