iCarte Turns the iPhone Into an RFID Reader

Earlier The Apple Blog reported that the next generation of iPhone might have an RFID reader built in, if rumors prove true. Well, there’s no need to wait that long. Wireless Dynamics in Canada has announced a device called the iCarte that will add both RFID and NFC capabilities to the iPhone. The New York Times/GigaOM reports.

A chip embedded in the iCarte turns your iPhone into a portable electronic wallet, able to process contactless payments. It can also transmit any information it receives directly to enterprise databases using Wi-Fi or 3G network connections, so that orders and purchases can be automatically input into your company’s home server.

Read full article.

emily | 8:29 AM | Barcode Technologies / RFID Tags / NFC | permalink |

CatPaint iPhone app adds cats to any photo

Spotted on Macworld, CatPaint, an iPhone app that lets you add a cat to any photo on your iPhone.

You grab a photo, choose a kitten, and then tap to place it anywhere within the image. They mew too.

emily | 9:15 PM | | permalink |

YouTube Direct: Why Citizen Journalists Shouldn't Care

PC World on YouTube Direct, launched yesterday and which enables amateur videographers and reporters to upload their footage to news Web sites.

For the mass media, it's a great tool. They get first-hand footage of breaking news without even having to look for it, probably for free (YouTube says the news sites can work out their own terms of service, which I assume would include the right to publish, transmit, re-publish, and so on). Precious time and money is saved.

What's in it for the so-called citizen journalist? Not much, unless you're still clinging to the idea that getting your name and 15-second video clip on a news Web site or broadcast is a big deal.

... YouTube Direct is a nice gesture from Google to the mainstream media. It's an attempt to connect news organizations to the citizen journalists they secretly loathe, but it assumes, falsely, that those citizen journalists need the news organizations in the first place.

emily | 8:51 AM | Citizens as Camera Phone Reporters, YouTube and other User Generated Video Sites | permalink |

YouTube launches channel for citizen journalists

YouTube has just launched YouTube Direct, whereby TV and online news editors can obtain video from so-called "citizen journalists" -- and even request such video be shot by amateurs seeking attention. [via Reuters]

News outlets seeking footage can announce it in a variety of ways, including via call-out videos posted at YouTube. When a YouTube user has video they think will interest the mainstream media, it can make it easy for editors, producers and journalists to contact them.

Testing the service now are Huffington Post, NPR, Politico, the San Francisco Chronicle and a couple of Boston TV stations.

emily | 2:24 PM | YouTube and other User Generated Video Sites | permalink |

An idea instead of banning cell-phone cameras from courthouses

Here's an idea from The Chicago Tribune.

Illinois' long-standing ban on cameras in courtrooms is unnecessary and outmoded.

... Instead of banning camera phones, establish a $1,000 contempt-of-court fine and equipment forfeiture for anyone caught snapping a photograph inside a courtroom.

Click here for related articles on camera phones banned or approved in courtrooms.

emily | 9:06 PM | | permalink |

Nicolas Sarkozy photoshopped in World Event photos

After writing and posting a picture on his facebook page that he was in Berlin on November 9, 1989, chipping away at the falling Wall, Nicolas Sarkozy is unmasked by Libération and other newspapers who found official records of Sarkozy attending a General De Gaulle commemorative ceremony at Colombey-les-deux-Eglises in France on that very same day.

The fun part? the Web is being innunded with photoshopped pictures of Nicolas Sarkozy at major world events. See a selection here.

Above photo, Sarkozy, at Yalta. By dadavidov.

emily | 1:48 PM | News, Buzz | permalink |

Jetstar to trial SMS boarding passes

Low-fare airline Jetstar is about to trial a mobile phone technology that issues boarding passes via SMS. In a bid to reduce check-in times and long queues, the SMS ''passes'' can be scanned electronically from the phone's screen at the departure gate.

The product analyses the alphanumeric codes included in the SMS and relates them to the airline's database where flight and passenger information is assembled.

... AirFrance and KLM rolled out electronic boarding passes earlier this year.

[via The Sydney Morning Herald]

emily | 1:28 PM | Barcode Technologies / RFID Tags / NFC | permalink |

Turning a Cellphone Into a Microscope

Assistant professor of electrical engineering Dr Aydogan Ozcan has developed special software and adapted cellphones to substitute for microscopes and diagnose diseases. The New York Times reports.

The adapted phones may be used for screening in places far from hospitals, technicians or diagnostic laboratories.

... In one prototype, a slide holding a finger prick of blood can be inserted over the phone’s camera sensor. The sensor detects the slide’s contents and sends the information wirelessly to a hospital or regional health center.

Read full article.

Related:

-- Phone gadget to diagnose disease - CellScope developped by California Berkeley researchers, works as a so-called fluorescence microscope that can identify the markers of disease.

emily | 8:28 AM | Business Applications | permalink |

Adding a ‘SixthSense’ to Your Cellphone

A camera-based device developed by an M.I.T. researcher Pranav Mistry turns walls into computer interfaces and allows users to issue commands through gestures. The technology is aimed at cellphone users.

[via Bits]

emily | 8:32 AM | New Camera Phones of Note | permalink |

Nude It app shows your friends naked

Nude-it.com claims to be the "official US website for the revolutionary iPhone app that allows the user to see everyone stark naked".

Simply point your iPhone at a friend, and using Nude It, you'll see them totally in the nude.

As it is unlikely to be approved by the Apple store, it will be available for download in a few days on a Website called whoisthebadlguy.com.

Sounds like a joke, but there is actually a video demo.

[via The Huffington Post]

emily | 8:15 AM | Cell Phone apps | permalink |

Kodak launches Pic Flick app for iPhone

Kodak has developed a clever app called Pic Flick that allows image upload to Kodak’s EasyShare wireless Digital Frames, the W1020 and W820, or print to the Kodak ESP 5250 Wi-Fi Printer.

Read full review in Unbeatable.

emily | 3:05 PM | Cell Phone apps | permalink |

PicTranslator Turns app Your iPhone's Camera into a Language Translator

PicTranslator app turns your iPhone camera into a translator. Just point-and-shoot to translate. It will also read the text in your pictures aloud, so you know how to pronounce what you see.

You just take a picture of the text you want translated, choose the language you want to translate from, and let PicTranslator do the rest. Once you know the (hopefully correct) translation, you can even ask PicTranslator to help you pronounce the foreign-language version.

Watch video demo on YouTube

[via Switched]

emily | 8:21 AM | Cell Phone apps | permalink |