Google’s major developer conference, Google I/O, went down this week. Was it a bit of a letdown? Probably. Did cool stuff still come out of the event? Eh? Maybe? We discuss these topics and more this week on the TC Gadgets podcast. In fact, we even had Frederic Lardinois join as a guest, along with John Biggs, Matt Burns, Jordan Crook (that’s me!), Romain Dillet, and Darrell Etherington as Bob McKenzie.
Enjoy!
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Intro Music by Rick Barr.
This week on the TechCrunch Gadgets Podcast we talk about Google Glass, the Galaxy S4, and the magic of Ubuntu laptops. This time we’re joined by Matt Burns, Jordan Crook, Greg Kumparak, and a pair of underwear that vibrates in Australia. Enjoy!
We invite you to enjoy our weekly podcasts every Friday at 3pm Eastern and noon Pacific.
Click here to download an MP3 of this show. You can subscribe to the show via RSS. Subscribe in iTunes
Intro Music by Rick Barr.
Question by Anonymous: Everyone says android has more free apps then the app store is this true? I checked some apps and the prices are the same or more expensive on android. Trying to decide between iPhone and android, and don’t feel like paying for new apps, especialy ones I own with the app store… Does android suck?
Best answer:
Answer by TomIf you have enough money to purchase a iPhone with a contract you have enough dollars to waste on some apps. Android operating system is far more interesting than Apple and no updating your PC every two weeks. Stop window shopping and make a commitment.
What do you think? Answer below!
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If you’re into 3D printable stuff, or into remote-control cars, then the OpenRC Project is for you. A gentleman in Sweden named Daniel Norée is sharing his progress on a 3D-printed Truggy, as well as sharing the recipe with the OpenRC Project group that he created. A truggy is an off-road vehicle, in case you weren’t sure.
The cost of 3D printers is dropping both for at-home use and enterprise, so it’s a very real possibility that consumers all over the world could soon have these devices in their living rooms. Crazier things have happened. We’ve seen 3D-printed iPhone docks, violins, pottery and even a robotic hand for a child.
If you can print out your very own customized remote-control car with one, count me in. While not all of the parts are printable, such as the wheels, for really die-hard remote control car fans, those are parts that they probably have sitting around in the garage already.
Here’s a video that Norée uploaded today that shows some of the schematics behind the parts, and the actual 3D-printing process using one of those fancy MakerBot Replicators:
The project has come a long way in the past few months; here’s a video of an earlier model breaking down:
I want one.
While this isn’t the only 3D-printed remote-control car out there, the advantage here is that you can follow the progress of the project on Google+ and join the discussion. If you’re ready to print one out, go here.
Because drinking beer is actually the least fun thing about beer pong, arcade manufacturer Bay Tek Games is releasing Beer Pong Master, a beer pong arcade game with zero alcohol. So…it’s not really beer pong is it? It’s just pong. Jk jk, just a waste of a dollar.
Normal beer pong mechanics are in play here, but you have a set amount of time (our machine was registered at 60-second games) to sink as many balls in the still-lit cups as possible. All 10 cups begin completely lit at the start of the timer, and once your first ball connects to the rim of any cup, the clock begins winding down until you’ve sunk a ball in every cup and dimmed all the lights, or 60 seconds has passed, whichever comes first
Man, this kind of makes me want to go play carnival games. Yeah, and I’m gonna win a big prize — none of those small or medium stuffed animals for me. I’m gonna be the guy carrying the GIANT BEAR. Fun fact: did you know that nobody ever actually wins the big stuffed animals at amusement parks and the people you see walking around with them are just employees paid to do that? Well that’s true and don’t even try to say you’ve won one or know somebody who has because that makes you a dirty liar.
Hit the jump for a video of the game being played.
Question by jj: What career in the chemistry field is this? What is a career that involves working with OLEDS (light emeting diodes), or anything related to the following article…
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101118084431.htm
Best answer:
Answer by Mike SFor areas of “pure” chemistry, it would be organic chemistry or physical chemistry (for studying how to prepare OLED materials, or how to understand the way the devices behave based on the properties of the luminescent molecules). Materials science is very closely related to chemistry; solid-state physics is a more distant area but there’d still be interest there in OLED materials. Each area will have a slightly different emphasis on why OLEDs are interesting to study, and different techniques for doing so.
Add your own answer in the comments!
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Viewsonic was behind one of the stranger products we saw at Computex last June: a 22-inch display that ran a clean version of Android 4.0. The company has unveiled an updated version of the product here at CES — a 24-inch, 1080p touchscreen that runs Android 4.1 and includes USB ports for hooking up a keyboard and mouse. The internals have been upgraded to a Tegra 3 processor, and it also has micro and mini HDMI ports for plugging in other machines. Viewsonic specifically noted that you could hook up a Windows 8 computer and take advantage of the operating system’s built-in touch capabilities. The company even added a blank area to the screen that lets Windows 8 users activate the edge-swiping gestures that are so integral to the OS….
Arduino has found its way into yet another musical device. I came across the ‘UFO’ while in Berlin. It’s a MIDI controller that lets you compose music or control synthesizers by waving your hands about.
Its creator, a Finnish former game developer named Tommi Koskinen, built it for use in performances with his band Phantom. After co-founding a company called Audiodraft and building games for several years for companies like Digital Chocolate and GameHouse, Koskinen said he felt a desire to build something more tangible. He was inspired by a performance he saw at a Helsinki art festival a year ago.
“There was this one artist that was using sonic sensors to control visuals and some tonalities,” Koskinen said. “There where I got this idea. I really wanted to have a device like that, where I could use my hands to control my own music and have it in a standalone box that could connect to any laptop or synthesizer.”
After some design courses at a university, he started prototyping a device.
To be clear, this isn’t a MIDI theremin (or one of those instruments that was popular in 50s sci-fi films), since the technology is different. Theremins use radio frequency oscillators while the UFO is ultrasonic. It emits sounds that aren’t detectable by the human ear and then senses echoes to measure distance. Based on the distance of your hands from the device, the UFO can control the pitch of a sound or push a track through a low-pass filter or add other effects to varying degrees.
It converts the distance of your hands from the device into MIDI data that can be fed into audio sequencing software like Ableton Live.
You can also use it to compose music. There’s a mode that he built that lets the UFO send MIDI notes and lets you control it like a virtual air keyboard. Each sensor can emit a different note (like on a pentatonic scale for example), and when you move your hand from left to right, it can be like doing a glissando on a piano. There’s a video demo below of that mode.
Koskinen just has one device right now, but he says he’d consider open-sourcing parts of the design (with the exception of the laser-cut casing).
