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Geek

Steam announces Big Picture, turns your TV into a gaming hub, web browser

The living room has always been a no-brainer venue for tech companies to expand their entertainment platforms, especially for the big three. Microsoft has the XBOX 360 which is also being marketed as a media center. Sony has its PS3 that shipped with Blu-ray capabilities. Of course Apple has the Apple TV. But then there’s Steam, that darling gaming platform founded by Gabe Newell of Valve that changed gaming paradigm permanently — more affordable games made available without the need of physical disks.

Now Steam is invading the living room with Big Picture, a hybrid version of the Steam app that allows you to amplify your gaming experience with your computer + a HDMI cable. ‘Big Picture’ mode gives you full access to Steam, a new web browser (quote: “a web browser on your TV that doesn’t suck), your mouse + keyboard and your gaming controller. No need to buy additional harware. It basically converts your flat screen LED TV into a Smart TV.

Big Picture comes as a welcome surprise as the rumor mill was churning out information that Gabe was in the process of developing a gaming box (aka ‘Steam Box’) which was basically a computer dedicated to gaming which you could hook up to your TV. Big Picture is probably the precursor to this. SIGN UP NOW.

To opt into the beta, go to the Steam menu and select settings. From this screen, you can click the change button under the Beta participation heading and select the “Steam Beta Update.” Once you’ve committed your selection, Steam will prompt you to restart the application. Once it’s back up and running, you’ll find a BIG PICTURE button near the upper right-hand corner of Steam’s main window. Click this, or if you have a game controller up and running, press its center button to enter Big Picture mode.

Exciting times!

Big Picture System Requirements

OS Windows Vista, 7, or 8. OS X support coming soon.

Memory 1 GB RAM

Processor 3.0 Ghz P4, Dual Core 2.0 (or higher) or AMD64X2 (or higher)

Video card Required / at least 256MB memory and DirectX 9-compatible with support for Pixel Shader 2.0b, Recommended / 512MB+ memory and DirectX 10-compatible

Disk space 1 GB recommended

Internet connection Broadband recommended

Controller Xbox 360 Wireless Controller for Windows, Xbox 360 Wired Controller, or Logitech Wireless Gamepad F710 recommended. Keyboard and mouse also supported.

Coming soon for Mac

Categories
Mostly Everything

Gentlemen, the future of bikes is here. It looks like something from the Flintstones cartoon

This is the new bike of the future as reported by The Daily Mail. With a built in harness that dangles the rider from the frame of the bike, the feet are used to accelerate and brake the bike. No pedals. No seat. Just the harness and your feet.

FLIZ comes from the German word “flitzen” and means speeding… with your feet.
The concept is to provide healthy, ecological mobility in overcrowded urban spaces.
The frame has a five point belt which is said, despite appearances, to provide a comfortable, ergonomic ride between running and biking.
The belt replaces the saddle and adjusts your position. [source]

Categories
Mostly Everything

Nokia Lumia 920: anti-blur image stabilization, wireless charging, use touch screen with long fingernails or gloves

Just hours ago, Nokia unveiled its latest flagship device, the Lumia 920. Running on the refreshed Windows Phone 8 platform, the Lumia 920 comes packed with interesting innovations which are welcomed in an era where a lot of high end phones start to resemble each other. Among these innovations are wireless charging and a super sensitive touch screen called PureMotion HD+ which allows you to use the phone with gloves on or with very long fingernails (someone did not cut their nails!). The phone also comes loaded with the new PureView anti-blur image stabilization technology that guarantees that every shot you take is crispy clear. The latter feature is exciting to put to actual use as the 8MP Carl Zeiss camera shoots at f/2 and I’m dying to see more competition vs the HTC One X and Samsung’s Galaxy S3 cameras which are both extremely awesome.

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Mostly Everything

Get your detailed Facebook stats with Wolfram Alpha Personal Analytics

One of the issues with having a Facebook profile is that, if you are a marketer, you won’t be able to see detailed analytics of your profile. This is definitely not an issue if you’re running a Facebook business page (relevant: Facebook released an app for page management) but what about personal profiles?

Well, Wolfram Alpha — which is a service run by math geniuses has released an app that allows you to take a very detailed look into your personal Facebook profile:

And today I’m excited to announce that we’ve developed a first round of capabilities in Wolfram|Alpha to let anyone do personal analytics with Facebook data. Wolfram|Alpha knows about all kinds of knowledge domains; now it can know about you, and apply its powers of analysis to give you all sorts of personal analytics. And this is just the beginning; over the months to come, particularly as we see about how people use this, we’ll be adding more and more capabilities.

All you need to do is head over to the Wolfram Alpha site, sign up and connect your Facebook account like how you would do with any service. Or, simply type “Facebook report” into the Wolfram Alpha search query. While you’re there, you might as well play around with the service — WA computes for anything so you can ask for information like give the travel time between the USA and the Philippines and it goes as far as telling you what % of the circumference of the earth you’ve traveled.

If you’re active on FB and want to give advertisers more data about your personal profile, this is rather useful. For kicks, here are (some of) my personal Facebook stats:

There’s a lot of data available and the results may actually surprise you. The service is completely free but you can upgrade to the PRO version to get more customized functions when exporting data.

Categories
Mostly Everything

Samsung announces ATIV line: the first synergy of Windows 8 for tablets, Surface laptop and Windows Phone 8

Very interesting news on Samsung today. The Korean company has been know as the poster boy of Android with their extensive line of tablets and smartphones all powered by Android. Today, they are making history by showing the proof of concept philosophy of Microsoft: the new Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 ecosystem.

For those unfamiliar, Microsoft has bet their entire farm on this new user experience by unifying all their commercial products (except the XBOX) into a single user experience in the form of laptops, tablets and smartphones. Windows 8 runs on the “Surface” ATIV PC and ATIV PC PRO. It also runs on the ATIV tab. For smartphones, the latest iteration of Windows Phone 8 runs on the new ATIV S.

No pricing as of late but you absolutely need to check these new products out. I’m particularly excited for Microsoft as this is the proof of concept they bet on and the critics have been either hot and cold on this new direction of making software less expensive while investing in hardware. The initial announcement of the Surface tablet by Microsoft left a lot of OEM’s shocked because Microsoft didn’t brand these designs with the stamp of any manufacturer. Looks like Samsung has made good on this one. They’re very pretty.