Tag Archives: technology

University Creates iPhone Orchestra

Posted on December 3, 2009 by cgseo

iPhones are being used as musical instruments in a new class taught at the University of Michigan. The students who design, build and play instruments on their iPhones, will perform a free public concert on December 9. The course called "Building a Mobile Phone Ensemble" is believed to be the first of its kind. The class is taught by Georg Essl , a computer scientist and musician who has been working on developing mobile phones as musical instruments. "The mobile phone is a very nice platform for exploring new forms of musical performance," said Essl. "We're not tethered to the physics of traditional instruments. We can do interesting, weird, unusual things." "This kind of technology is in its infancy, but it's a hot and growing area to use iPhones for artistic expression." To build an instrument on an iPhone, the students program the device to play back as sound information it receives from one of its sensors. The touch-screen, microphone, GPS, compass, wireless sensor and accelerometer can all be changed so that when a user runs their fingers across the display, blow air into the mic, tilt or shake the phone, different sounds will come out of the device. The class requires some creativity and technological savvy according to Essl. "In order to come up with a creative piece you have to engage with the technology, but in order to make technology interesting, you also have to engage with the musicality. These are really hard to separate. We're trying to teach both," Essl said. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Legal, Pay-Per-Click | Tagged blow air, Business, compass, device, iphones, Legal, mobile phone, musical performance, musicality, quest-launches, technology, traditional instruments, university of michigan | Leave a comment

Google Gets a New Real-Time Infrastructure for Display Ads

Posted on November 23, 2009 by cgseo

Google just announced that it is acquiring Teracent , a provider of "intelligent dynamic display advertising." The company considers itself a pioneer in dynamic ad serving and optimization solutions. Google appears to agree. Teracent provides machine-learning algorithms, which can create customized display ads based on thousands of different creative elements. The infrastructure Teracent brings to the table allows for real-time assembly of dynamic ads. It's designed to determine the optimal selection of each ad element and return it based on the objectives of the campaign. "As you know, we've been busy releasing new features and products to help improve display advertising on the web for everyone," Google says. "We believe that Teracent's technology fits neatly into these efforts." Google says the one on the right was created with Teracent's technology. "Teracent's technology can pick and choose from literally thousands of creative elements of a display ad in real-time — tweaking images, products, messages or colors," the company adds. "These elements can be optimized depending on factors like geographic location, language, the content of the website, the time of day or the past performance of different ads." "The infrastructure, opportunities and technical depth that Google will provide for Teracent customers means a future of product innovation for Teracent's dynamic ad optimization platform," Teracent says in their own announcement. Google says the technology can help advertisers get better results from their display ad campaigns, while enabling publishers to make more money from their ad space. Teracent's technology will be available to all Google advertisers running display ads, including DoubleClick clients. The deal is expected to close this quarter, subject to various, but unnamed closing conditions. Integration details will be announced after the deal is officially closed. Financial terms were not disclosed. Related Articles: > Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Pay-Per-Click | Tagged acquisitions, advertising, after-the-deal, amp, Business, dynamic ads, dynamic display, geographic location, return-it-based, review and story, technology, teracent, time infrastructure, tweaking | Leave a comment

National Dog Show Available Online At Hulu

Posted on November 20, 2009 by admin

NBC said today "The National Dog Presented by Purina" will be available online Thanksgiving Day (Noon - 2 p.m. in all time zones) at NBCSports.com. The television broadcast will also be available online after 2 p.m. ET on Hulu . To complement the TV special and showcase all the breeds, NBCSports.com will feature video of the walks, examination and judging of all the breed-winning dogs with commentary from announce Wayne Ferguson, President of the host Kennel Club of Philadelphia. NBC is inviting viewers to vote for their favorite group winner in a best in show poll. TV viewers will be able to vote online at NBCSports.com or by texting the word "DOG" to 5155 on their cell phones. "The success and popularity of the 'National Dog Show' is because it reaches all generations and families can watch the show together," said Jon Miller, Executive Vice President of NBC. "There is also growing interest in all of the different breeds and we recognize the importance of providing online coverage of each one." NBC says "The National Dog show" attracted 18.7 million viewers last year, and this year it will again follow the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The show is hosted by John O'Hurley and analyst David Frei. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Pay-Per-Click | Tagged amp nbsp, Business, coming-soon, importance, jon miller, music-video, nbc, purina, technology, television broadcast, video pool | Leave a comment

Security A Concern For Online Holiday Shoppers

Posted on November 17, 2009 by cgseo

As Americans prepare for the holiday shopping season, online security plays a major part in consumers' purchasing decision, according to a new poll by the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) and Symantec. More than half (63%) of online shoppers said they did not complete a purchase because of security concerns. The most common reasons for not making an online purchase include: Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Pay-Per-Click | Tagged better-holiday, browser, critical decisions, few minutes, holiday shopping, know-the-vendor, michael-kaiser, money, online-retailers, padlock, personal, secure sites, technology | Leave a comment

Egypt Applies For First International Domain Name

Posted on November 16, 2009 by admin

Egypt said Monday it is applying to use Arabic characters for the first time in its entire Internet domain name. The move by Egypt comes as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) formally opens the process allowing countries to apply for "internationalized" domain names or IDNs, where scripts such as Arabic or Chinese will be used in the last part of an address name. Representatives of Saudi Arabia and Russia also announced at the Egypt Internet Governance Forum that they have also applied for IDNs under the "ccTLD Fast Track" process. "The Internet now speaks Arabic," said Egypt's Minister of Communication and Information Technology. During a news conference earlier today he announced his country's IDN application, saying, "This proves that ICANN is interested in the multilingual development process of the Internet and we're thankful to be one of the first to apply for an Arabic IDN." Today's launch of the IDN application process follows ICANNs announcement a few weeks ago, at its meeting in South Korea, that it has agreed to the gradual introduction of Internationalized Domain Names. Initially, IDNs will only be allowed on a limited basis involving country codes, which are designators at the end of an address name. Those countries can now apply to use IDNs in their own language scripts for those "country code" top-level domains (ccTLDs). Eventually, the use of IDNs will be expanded to all types of Internet address names. "The opening of the IDN application process today will go down in history as a major step in Internationalizing the Internet," said Rod Beckstrom, ICANN's President and CEO. "More than half of the world's Internet users do not use a Latin-based script for their native language, so this marks the beginning of a process that will make the Internet more accessible to millions of those online users today and potentially billions tomorrow Related Articles: > ICANN Approves International Domains > Respected Security Expert Becomes ICANN CEO > ICANN Becomes More Independent Continue reading →