J2ME GPS

Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today unveiled its vision for the BlackBerry 10 platform at the BlackBerry World conference in Orlando, Florida released and the initial developer toolkit for native and HTML5 software development. The toolkit is available in beta as a free download from http://developer.blackberry.com. Read more inside..

From Star Wars fans to artists to designers, it’s a great day for innovative men — except for Osama bin Laden, who couldn’t even figure out his email.

A talented Star Wars super fan used music to express his love for The Force on Star Wars Day, while another adventurous soul took to the skies with an experimental jet pack.

Osama bin Laden turned out to be less than adventurous on the Internet, but perhaps it was good for his relationships.

Meanwhile, a scientist and designer teamed up to create a spray that gets users instantly drunk, and in a month or so there will likely be several sensationalist pieces on teens going wild for it. Also, a Hong Kong artist challenged how technology impacts real-life connections.

Celebrating “Star Wars” Through Song

In honor of Star Wars Day, vocalist Nick McCaig created an elaborate cover of the film’s theme song, laying down 90 tracks of vocals to achieve a symphonic, totally a capella version of the famous tune.

McCaig spent over 300 hours recording his YouTube masterwork, using auto-tune to accent his well-pitched vocals, and released the clip just in time for Star Wars Day.

McCaig used Adobe Premiere and edited the video himself with the same technique he used when he recorded his tribute to The Simpson’s famous theme, which racked up almost 50,000 views on YouTube. Perhaps this one will get even more, as long as the force is strong with him.

“Jetman” Takes The Skies

Yves Rossy, who prefers to go by “Jetman”, lived up to his name when he soared over Rio de Janiero in a hand-crafted rocket suit. This latest stunt sent him flying past Rio’s iconic Christ the Redeemer statue and on to Copacabana Beach.

Rossy, a former fighter pilot, made similar flights over the Grand Canyon and Abu Dhabi in the past. He jumps out of planes and into the sky with his rocket-fueled wings.

The Swiss daredevil wants to expand the possibilities of human flight — perhaps upcoming personal aircraft Terrafugia should hire him as a spokesman?

Booze Spray Gets Users Drunk In Record Time

Want to feel drunk for a few seconds, instantly? WAIHH Quantum Sensations might be very appealing — with a simple spray, users feel a potent alcoholic buzz lasting only a fleeting amount of time.

Developed by Philippe Starck, who designed a yacht for the late Steve Jobs, and French-American scientist David Edwards, the spray is meant as a quick pick-me-up or a confidence booster before a night on the town, and it delivers a miniscule amount of alcohol into the system, so it is safe if used correctly. A container runs less than $30 for about 20 uses, so it’s fairly budget-friendly.

People who want to enjoy the process of having drinks with friends may find this product baffling, as will revelers looking to keep up their buzz for longer than the length of a TV commercial.

Osama bin Laden Had No Internet Savvy

Classified documents revealed Osama bin Laden had poor e-mail skills, sending messages to subordinates making it clear he didn’t really understand how the whole Internet thing worked.

Considering bin Laden didn’t exactly grow up or live in technologically advanced conditions, his poor e-mail skills make sense.

The documents also showed bin Laden was getting angry at his subordinates for not hating the U.S. with enough vigor, and he may have equated Internet literacy with Western values.

Is Technology Ruining Your Relationships?

A multimedia art project from Hong Kong-based artist Eric Sui explores the effects technology has on relationships. “Touchy” examines the ways over-reliance on technology can damage relationships by physically encasing people in helmets equipped with cameras and lenses.

The futuristic helmets snap pictures regularly when the person wearing it comes in contact with others, and displays the images on the back of the helmet. The picture-taking element is supposed to illustrate how photography impacts memory formation.

When Sui finishes with the art project, he may want to consider lending the helmet out to the costume department for a movie studio — perhaps to George Lucas. It looks like something out of “Return of the Jedi.”

Daily Roundup: May the Fourth Be With You originally appeared at Mobiledia on Fri May 04, 2012 4:06 pm.

New touch-sensitive technology may turn everyday objects into touchscreens, revolutionizing home goods and gaming.

Touche, developed by a team of researchers from Disney Research, Pittsburgh University and Carnegie Mellon, harnesses the tactile sensing technology used on touchscreens to run a variety of devices, including doorknobs, chairs and household appliances.

The technology uses Swept Frequency Capacitive Sensing, or SFSC, which lets objects interpret the body position and how it is being touched and reacts accordingly. Users can coat the surfaces of ordinary objects with transparent conductors programmed to respond to the body’s electronic frequencies, making them touchscreen-enabled.

“This might enable us to one day do away with keyboards, mice and perhaps even conventional touchscreens for many applications,” Munehiko Sato, one of the researchers, explained.

Touche could have major potential for companies looking to develop “smart home” technology.

Unlike smart home innovations relying on smartphones and cloud technology, like home-improvement vendor Lowe’s cloud-based kit and Google’s Android@Home service, Touche effectively transforms devices themselves into the mobile technology, imbuing everyday objects with touchscreen capabilities.

Touche casts a wider net with its ambitions than those explored with AT&T Labs’ system for opening doors using similar technology, taking it beyond simple home security. For example, the researchers experimented with doorknobs, but unlike AT&T’s system, users do not need to have their smartphones handy to operate the knob with their fingers — the knob itself would be programmed to respond.

Aside from potentially boosting smart home technology, Touche may also have a profound effect on gaming. SFCS could turn ordinary objects into controllers, and may be better at responding to subtle touches than current body-conscious controllers, like Nintendo Wi or Kinect, since researchers say its touch-recognition rate is near 100 percent.

Microsoft is testing Kinect on its upcoming Windows 8 platform, demonstrating the company is exploring new ways for users to interact with its devices. Kinect is motion-sensitive while Touche functions through touch, so a combination of both technologies could create responsiveness that stands out from the crowd, especially since Touche can turn human bodies into sensors.

Touche has the potential to transform an array of appliances and household objects into “smart” devices, and once it becomes available for commercial application, companies invested in smart home technology like Google and Lowe’s may jump at the opportunity to transform daily lives in the future.

Turn Everything Into a Touchscreen originally appeared at Mobiledia on Fri May 04, 2012 2:07 pm.