Strange Projects at Google
FFFFOUND! is a web service that allows users to post and share their favorite images found on the web. The newest are always on the homepage, and there’s some interesting stuff on there so add the Feed URL if you wanna keep updated.
Visit the site here:
http://ffffound.com/
Struggling with the changing desktop market and lagging behind Google on search and internet apps, today Microsoft forked out $240m (£117m) for a 1.6% stake in Facebook today. That values the hugely popular social networking site at $15bn (£7.3bn). Also to note is that Facebook had previously turned down an investment offer from Google; who are developing rival network Orkut. After Google beat Microsoft to the massively successful YouTube, i reckon the boys back at Redmond will be out for a few beers tonight.
Read more:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7061042.stm
15 reasons Facebook may be worth $15bn:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7061398.stm
Apple has announced that Leopard will be available on the 26th October 2007. Leopard sports over 300+ new features.
Take a look for yourself here:
http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/300.html
http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-6754621605046052935&hl=en
This is an interview with Peter Norvig, Director of Research at Google; taken from a conference held by the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence. There’s a lot of theory here, but also some info about how Google are teaching their machines to learn.
You’ve probably heard this track all summer getting caned by Radio 1, XFM, Captial, etc… but keep an eye out for the re-release. It’s got a ‘cool as’ remix by OrtzRoka.
Listen to Young Folks (OrtzRoka Remix):
[audio:YoungFolks_OrtzRoka Remix.mp3]
Excellent stuff. You can check out there website at http://www.ortzroka.com/
There’s been a lot of fuss kicked up recently about the new Bunnies ad from Fallon for Sony Bravia. The general gist is that an independent illustration agency submitted ideas to Passion Pictures; the animation house behind the bunnies; in 2002. There were a lot of similarities.
You can read more about it here, and here’s the ad in question.
Turns out it’s not just the visuals that are in question. Turns out the music has already been used in another seminal ‘Colors’ commercial.
I love the iMac ad. It’s classic Apple. No specifications, just a beautifully shot selection of the new machines spinning around each other. Mind you, does that look familiar?
Remember kids: Recycle… The possibilities are endless!
Music:
The Rolling Stones – Rainbow [iMac Colors / Sony Bravia Bunnies]
Honeycut – Exodus Honey [iMac 2007]
More info:
Honeycut on Myspace
The BBC are to offer their online service for free through The Cloud Wi-Fi network. This follows an annoucement that from O2 that the iPhone will be given free usage of the same hotspots, although the highly unclear “fair usage” policy applies to the iPhone.
The BBC also confirmed that Mac users will be able to use its iPlayer TV catch-up service from the end of the year. Interestingly though, the official annoucement added that “The broadcaster has signed a deal with Adobe to provide Flash video for the whole of the BBC’s video services, including a streaming version of its iPlayer.”
So hopefully that’s a final goodbye to Microsoft DRM and the wobbly RealPlayer technology. As Flash Player adds new codecs and keeps improving quality surely a cross-platform solution was the only way to go.
Read more:
http://www.thecloud.net/page/3835
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7045123.stm
