Trexic.Net

While, this was a slow week, there have been some awesome things. I AM really sorry for not getting them to you right away, so here it is…

• The Google Android was shown at the mobile conference. It wasn’t really much, since it was actually the emulator displayed on a Texas Mobile Instruments mobile phone. The actual OS is delayed. The Sony phone for the Android will be out in 2009.

• Firefox 3 Beta was introduced to the world, and I love it. It doesn’t seem buggy, and the address bar is an actual search engine for any website you’ve gone to. Type in a word that you found on a page, and it will search all pages with that word. It’s awesome!

• Pmog is a private beta site that allows you to play one game all across the net. A browser add-on docked at the bottom of your browser allows you to play missions and drop things such as mines. Then, when other Pmog users go onto the particular site, they get hurt by your mine. Creative, right?

Well, that’s basically it. I’ll try to keep you updated all of the time.

Netvibes is a customizable web page where you can add widgets (such as igoogle but with a better design). The 5 star widgets I think are most important to note are gmail and facebook as well as an rss feed application where you can add you favorite blogs (not gonna say anything). Netvibes recently added a move and drop feature in their NETVIBES GINGER BETA and even more awesome. There are several different codes that you can enter to get into this private version (note: some might be already be used up as they were all set up with a number of invites): FACEBOOK, TCGINGER500, 100GINGERWW, and WIREDGIN100 (you also need an account before you sign up.) If you can’t get that, well I MIGHT be able to help you out…Sign Up Here

If you want, more widgets. You can also make one at Orchestr8. They have a cool clipping thing where you can get a website and clip any part of it. Check it out. It’s a must try. Heres my version of it:

The Apple keynotes was this week as most of you may know, and I found it very boring because there was nothing too exciting. Sure the Mac Air (the new skinny mac that can easily fit into a yellow envelope) is one of a kind, but for $1700? There’s no way I would want to buy something like this, even if it had a CD drive. And the movie rentals? Sure they are cool, but I don’t want to be rushed too much to watch a movie. We should be able to set the time and pay for that; instead, a petty 24 hours from pressing play. I mean, what if I fell asleep in the middle of the movie? Now what happened to Austin Powers when he was being attacked by that fat guy?

Happy New Years Everyone!

This year is going to change; more technical advances, and a new president.

We’ve seen a lot this year; good and bad, but now we need to look to the future.

Here’s what I want to get this year: A LaCie 500 GB External Hard Drive, The Android (gPhone), and a LiveScribe Smart Pen. What do you guys want to buy?

Ender’s Game, based on a book, is the movie I most want to see that’s coming out this year. What do you want to see this year?

Well, gotta go celebrate.

(NOTE: Category, Movies, added)

That’s what APC says might happen in one of their recent articles. The Mobile World Congress expo, a convention where all companies in  the phone business show off their new goodies, is presenting again on February 11th in Barcelona. Has Google bought a stand? Yes. Not one, but two. I wonder what the second stand is for…

Read this Article

Hey guys, Sorry about the two week break, but I had some work to get done. Now the holiday brake is coming and I’ll have more time to post. www.spokeo.com gives you a news feed, just like Facebook, that finds your friends on places you didn’t even know they were. It seems a bit creepy, but the news on the feed is accessible to you already, you just didn’t know where they were. For this, we are opening up a new category called “social.”

Gizmodo got a hold of the Android prototype. It doesn’t look too good in a pic, but hey, it’s just a homemade pic. 

Hello everyone who has stayed with this blog. I am very sorry that we were away this November, but am glad to inform you that I’m back. On this post, I will give a review of the month. So lets get into it.

The Kindle is a mini computer designed by Amazon that allows you to buy books, news papers, and blogs off of amazon and then download it right off of the Kindle. The internet is free because amazon struck a deal with Sprint. I don’t know the speciics of the dea, but I guess that’s why book prices are kind of high. If you just want to use the internet, though, it’s free. The screen is book-like and dim to attract the people who do not like reading of of the glossy screens of today. It also has some note-taking abilities. I would like to see Amazon strike deals with major school textbook companies so students don’t have to lug around with heavy textbooks, breaking their backs. Then and ONLY then, will I buy something like this. MacWorld has a really good article on what we know and what we don’t know about the Kindle.

Flashphone is an awesome free flash browser based phone. It is based in Russia. Right now (as a Beta procedure) you are only allowed to have three minutes talking time, but the company says that when it’s out of beta, it will have unlimited minutes. The company’s money source is based on ads that come on before the call takes place.

iHound is an iPod tracker that tracks where the iPod i so that if you ever lose it or it gets stolen, you can find it. The way it works is whenever an iPod is plugged into a computer, the computer’s wifi sends a signal to the website, informing you where it is. This tracking idea is really good unless your guy is pour, which is usually the case with stealers, and does not use wifi, likes your collection of music, is a hacker, uses a firewall, owns a gun, lives in a bad neighborhood, or lives in another continent.

Doodlekit is a nice website creator that gives advanced tools to non-techies

On another note, the Google Highly Open Participation Contest (weird name) is an awesome idea. It awards $100 and a Google t-shirt to developers, 13 to 18 who do three things on several open source projects. The person who does the most for the open source projects get a free trip to Google’s complex in California baby!

But the most favorite of mine this month, isn’t that Verizon went open (which really isn’t open ), but the LiveScribe Smart Pen. It is pen that does just about everything that you hope for in a pen. Here is a summary of the pen:

Smartpen

Just slightly larger than a Montblanc, Livescribe’s smartpen is designed to replace the everyday pen as a user’s primary writing instrument. Leveraging recent breakthroughs in memory, storage, microprocessors, connectivity and component size, the smartpen is an advanced paper-based computer, with both audio and visual feedback, powerful processing capabilities and substantial built-in storage.

Dot Paper with Dot Positioning System (DPS)

Imagine a piece of paper the size of Europe and Asia, where every 3 square millimeters is covered with a unique pattern of dots that is nearly invisible to the human eye. The pattern of simple, micro-dots enables a patented dot-positioning system to precisely track the smartpen’s movement on paper. As a result, anything you write – words, numbers or drawings – can be stored, recognized, and intelligently responded to by the Livescribe smartpen.

Livescribe’s dot paper notebooks and documents will be provided by the company and partners at prices near standard paper. Dot paper may also be printed on certified home or business printers.

Applications

The possibilities for paper-based computing applications are endless – with tools and games that enhance personal productivity, learning, communications, and entertainment.

Never miss a word One of the key applications at launch for the Livescribe platform is called “Paper Replay,” which allows total recall from lectures, meetings or conversations by simply tapping on your notes. When used to take notes during a discussion or lecture, the smartpen records the conversation and digitizes the handwriting, automatically synchronizing the ink and audio. By later tapping the ink, the user can replay the conversation from the exact moment the note was written. Notes and audio can also be uploaded to a PC where they can be replayed, saved, searched or sent.

Create, share, and collaborate – Other applications will use the power of the Internet to enable personal expression. Handwritten messages can be sent as emails. Animated, hand-drawn “movies” can be posted and shared online. Spoken messages can be recorded, linked with written notes and emailed directly from a notepad.

“Live” documents that work – Other applications available for download will use handwriting recognition and pre-printed materials to bring your paper to life. Write a math problem and the smartpen will interpret your writing, calculate the answer and speak it or show it on its OLED display. Write a word and hear or see its definition or even its translation into another language. Tap a pre-printed map, conversion table, customer survey, magazine ad, or study guide, and the smartpen instantly launches an application that enables direct user interaction.

Cool, huh? It also allows you to create an application for the pen.
Bang!

Finally developers can start working on applications for the gphone (I am rebelling from the word Android from now on. You guys do it too. It is how Coke got its nickname “Coke” instead of the formal name, coca-cola). Many were wondering how Google would get developers to come to develop applications for them. The answer was clear in the developer section of android.com. Their giving $25,000 for the top 50 entries that are most promising. There are other prizes that are worth more than that, but in developing my application for the gPhone, I’m going to go for that goal, and give the money, if I win, to my school.
So, what does that phone look like?? In the video below, Google shows us what the handset and the OS “might” look like. As you can see, Google is still trying to be vague on the appearance of the phone, but from what I can see, I think Google might sell different types of handsets; one, a blackberry look-alike, and one, wide touch screen based.

In recent Google rumors, Google looks like it is looking into aquiring Sprint. Now, this may be just a confusion because people were mainly focusing on AT&T, Tmobile, and Verizon when they were watching the gPhone make its way to the public, but Google does have no boundaries, and it can definitely buy Sprint out without breaking a sweat. Also, Google is getting into wireless internet, and that is confirmed. So why NOT get into the cellphone biz even deeper? Who knows? Remember that rumor on Google using ads to make calls free on the gPhone? Well there was. Maybe Google asked Sprint about this and they said no. “Oops.” Google says as they grin into the CEO’s face. “Guess we have to buy you out.”

Are you waiting for the gphone? Can’t wait any longer? Well many people are thinking that the new HTC Dual Touch has the gPhones platform, and inside sources aren’t denying it. You’ll have to wait a little bit longer, but here’s a demo of the HTC Dual Touch phone.

Hey Tmobile users. I was just walking down the street and saw a tmobile store that had a sign that said they were going to sell tmobile powered iPhones soon. Who knew? This doesn’t effect me, though, because I am a Verizon user and quite content until the gPhone comes out.

[Editors Note: Sorry that I haven’t been able to give news. I have a lot of new websites to show you. Just hold on and wait.